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{See Page 76J 


Hazel’s call on Colonel Alexander Hamilton. 



A Loyal Little Red-Coat 


A Story of Child- life in New York a Hundred Years Ago 



RUTH OGDEN 

/ 



WITH OVER SIXTY ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATIONS BY 

H. A. OGDEN 


FREDERICK 


NEW YORK 
A. STOKES 
MDCCCXC 


OF CO/Vq^ 

cOPYR'GHr 


SEP 261890 

COMPANY 



Copyright, 1890, 

By FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY. 

) 2 - '3 7^<^7 


I 


PREFACE. 


'KJ 

w 






In the introductory chapter of “The History of the People of 
the United States,” Mr. McMaster announces as his subject, ‘^The 
history of the people from the close of the war for Independence 
down to the opening of the war between the States.” It seems at 
first thought improbable that a history excluding both the Revolu- 
tion and the Civil War should prove in any great degree interesting, 
but the first twelve pages suffice to convince one to the contrary. 
With consummate skill in selection and narration, Mr. McMaster 
has brought to light information of a singularly novel character. 
Impressed with this unlooked-for quality, it occurred to me that here 
was ground that had not been previously gone over — not, at any 
rate, in a story for children. “ A Loyal Little Red-Coat” has been 
the outcome. Whether I have succeeded in transferring to these 
pages aught of the peculiar interest of the history remains to be 
seen. This much may be said, however, that every historical allusion 
is based upon actual fact. The English Circus, the Captain’s letter, 
Harry’s Prison-Ship experiences, Alexander Hamilton’s successful 
defence of a Tory client, the treatment of the Bonifaces at the ball — 
all find their counterpart in the realities of a century ago. For much 
of the minor historical detail I am indebted to those rare and quaint 
old volumes, carefully treasured by our historical societies, which 
make possible the faithful recounting of the story of bygone days. 
In my attempt to reproduce the child-life of a time so far removed, 
I have probably been guilty of some anachronisms. If, however, I 
have woven a page of history into a story that, by any chance, shall 
interest the children, for whom it has been a delight to me to write 
it, I shall be sincerely grateful. 


Brooklyn, N. Y. 


Ruth Ogden. 





V A Loyal Little Red-Coat 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER page 

I . — On the Albany Coach, ..... 9 

II . — Hazel speaks her Mind, 17 

III. — The Circus, and What came of It, , . , 27 

IV. — Flutters, ........ 38 

V. — Captain Boniface receives an angry Letter, . 50 

VI . — Off for the Prison Ship, . . . . 53 

VII. — Harry's Story, 58 

VIII . — A Call on Colonel Hamilton, . . . 71 

IX . — Flutters has a Benefit, 81 

X . — Darling Old Aunt Frances, .... 94 

XI. — The Van Fleets give a Tea Party, . . .101 

XII . — An Interruption, ...... 107 

XIII. — More about the Tea Party, . . . *113 

XIV. — Hazel has a Conviction, 120 

XV . — Flutters comes to the Front, . . . .128 

XVI . — Colonel Hamilton ''takes to" Harry, . . 137 

XVII . — In the little Gold Gallery, . . . . .142 

XVIII . — More of a Red-coat than ever, . , . 15 1 

XIX . — A Sad Little Chapter, . . . . •165 

XX . — Flutters comes to a Decision 171 

XXL — Some Old Friends come to Light, . . .178 

XXII. — Good-bye, Sir Guy, 185 

XXIII . — Flutters loses one of the Old Friends, . .194 

XXIV. — Two Important Letters, . . . . . 197 

XXV . — A Happy Day for Aunt Frances, . . . 205 

XXVI. — The "Blue Bird" weighs Anchor, . . . 210 


V 





A LOYAL LITTLE RED-COAT. 


CHAPTER I. 

ON THE ALBANY COACH. 



AZEL BONIFACE was a 
Loyalist, which means that 
she was a hearty little 
champion of King George 
the Third of England, and 
this notwithstanding she 
lived in America, and was 
born there. It had hap- 
pened to be on a crisp Oc- 
tober morning of the year 
1773 that Hazel’s gray 
eyes first saw the light, and 
they no sooner saw the 
light than they saw a won- 
derful red coat, and just as 
soon as she was able to 
understand it, she learned 
that that red coat belonged 
to her papa, and that her papa belonged to King George’s army. 
So, after all, you see it was but natural that she should have been a 
little Loyalist from the start, and quite to have been expected that 
she should grow more and more staunch with every year. 

Now it chanced one midwinter afternoon, when Hazel was 


lO 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT. 


about six years old, that she came into the city — that is, into New 
York — on an errand with her father, and that she stood for a while 
watching a merry party of boys, who were having the jolliest sort 
of a time coasting down Powder House Hill, and skating on the 
clear, crystal ice of the Collect. The Collect and Powder House 
Hill ! You never heard of them, did you, and yet may have lived 
in New York all your life; but you may believe the little New 
Yorkers of those days knew them and loved them. 

The Collect (though where it got its name no one knows) was 
a beautiful sheet of water connected with the North River by a 
creek crossing Broadway, where we now have Canal street, and the 
hill where the Powder House stood was one of the pretty heights 
that bordered it. Wouldn’t some of the little people who live in 
that crowded part of the city to-day be surprised to know, that only 
a hundred years ago ponds and hills took the place of the level city 
streets, and that a boy could start way over east of Broadway, skate 
under the arch at Canal street, and then strike out across the broad 
Lispenard meadows straight to the North River But those boys 
of the olden time, who were spending their short afternoon holiday 
there on the ice, were exactly like the boys of to-day, in that they 
were cutting up the very silliest sort of capers. Hazel, however, 
thought it all very funny, and longing for the time when she should 
have a pair of skates of her own, wondered if that boy with the 
pretty name — that boy the other boys called Starlight — would teach 
her how to use them. And so one time when he came gliding her 
way she called out, quite to the surprise of her father, whose hand 
she stood holding, “ Will you teach me how to skate when I grow 
old enough. Starlight?” 

“ Bless your heart, yes,” came the answer, as soon as the finest 
little skater that ever buckled skates on the Collect could put the 
brakes to his winged feet, “ but you must tell me your name, so 
that I shall know you when you grow up.” 

“ Hazel, Hazel Boniface,” she replied; “and is your name really 
Starlight ? It’s a beautiful name.” 

^Wes, Starlight’s my last name; my other name is Job; that 
isn’t so pretty, is it 

“ I should think not ; I shall always call you just Starlight.” 

And Hazel had been true to her word, and had always called 


ON THE ALBANY COACH. ii 

Job just Starlight, and Job had been true to his promise, and had 
long ago taught Hazel to skate, for she was ten now and he four- 
teen, and they had been the best of friends this long while, notwith- 
standing Job was as zealous a Whig as was Hazel a Loyalist. 

And now, for fear you should not happen to know just what is 
meant by Whig and Loyalist, you must — there is no help for it if 
you are to understand this story — put up with a solid little bit of 
history right here and now. You see Hazel was born in 1773, and 
as she has just scored a tenth birthday, that brings us to 1783, and 
1783 found affairs in New York in a decidedly topsy-turvy state. 
A great war had been going on for eight long years called, as you 
know, the war of the Revolution, because the colonies in America 
had revolted^ declaring their determination to be independent, and 
that King George of England should no longer be their king. And 
all that while, that is, during those eight long years, King George’s 
soldiers had been in possession of New York, and many of the 
Whigs — and Whigs, remember, are the people who sided against 
King George — had fled from their dwellings, and scores of Loyal- 
ists, pouring into the city to be under the protection of the English 
soldiers, had made their homes in the Whigs’ empty houses. But 
now matters were beginning to look very differently. The great 
war was over, the colonies had been successful, and although the 
English soldiers were still in New York, they were soon to go, 
every one of them, and the Whigs were returning in great numbers, 
and trying to turn out the Loyalists, whom they found living in 
their homes. Most of these Loyalists, however, were very loath to 
go, some of them, indeed, avowing that go they would not ! No 
wonder, then, that affairs in New York in 1783 were in a decidedly 
topsy-turvy state ; and this brings us to the real commencement of 
our story, and to Hazel, sitting alone on the porch of her home at 
Kings Bridge, and with a most woe-begone expression on her 
usually happy face. Suddenly a new thought seemed to strike her, 
and she started on a brisk little run for the gate ; but it was simply 
that, hearing the sound of wheels in the distance, she knew that the 
Albany coach was coming, and the Albany coach was what she was 
waiting for. That was long before the days of railroads, and 
when all the travelling must needs be done in that “ slow-coach” 
fashion. 


12 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT. 


The Albany stage was generally full inside, and, as Hazel 
expected, this morning was no exception ; but that did not make the 
least difference in the world to her, for what she wanted was a seat 
beside Joe Ainsworth, the driver. Indeed, it was not an unusual 
thing for Hazel to ask for a ride into town, nor for Joe to grant it, 
so that the moment he spied her standing in the road ahead of 
him, he knew what it meant, and reined up his four dusty white 
horses. 

Hazel looked very sweet and fresh, no doubt, in the eyes of the 
wearied travellers, who had journeyed all night in the jouncing 
stage, and, in fact, she would have looked sweet and fresh in the eyes 
of anybody whose eyes were good for very much. She wore a 
quaint little gown and kerchief, as yet without rumple or wrinkle, 
for it was but nine o’clock in the morning, and breakfast and a 
quiet little “ think” on the porch had not proved in the least damag- 
ing to either skirt or keichief. To tell the truth. Hazel had an 
intense regard for a fresh and dainty toilet, and somehow contrived 
to scale the side of the coach without in any way begriming her 
pretty dress, although she was obliged to make use of one great 
dusty wheel in ascending. First she planted both feet on its hub, 
and then by aid of Joe’s hand fairly bounded to her seat beside him 
with quite as much grace as a little deer of the forest, and a “little 
dear” she was in point of fact, if you alter but one letter in the 
spelling. 

“Well, Miss Hazel,” said Joe, after he had started up his horses, 
“how are you this warm morning for it was early September, and 
the sun was already shining hotly down upon them. 

“ Oh, I’m very well then, after a moment’s pause, “No, I don’t 
believed am very well, either, because, Joe, I feel very blue.” 

“Blue!” exclaimed Joe; “you blue! Why, you ought not to 
learn even the meaning of the word these twenty years yet.” 

“Some children learn it very young, Joe,” with a real little 
sigh. 

“ But what in creation have you to be blue about. I’d like to 
know.? Perhaps you have gotten a spot on that pretty Sunday 
frock of yours,” for Joe knew Hazel’s little weakness in that 
direction. ^ 

“Joe !” said Hazel, indignantly, and with such a world of reproof 


ON THE ALBANY COACH. 


13 


in heV tone that Joe had to pretend to cough to keep from laugh- 
ing. “ If you think a moment, Joe, I’m sure you will remember that 
I have reason to feel very, very blue indeed.” 

Hazel was so serious that Joe felt in duty bound to put his 
thinking-cap on, and ransacked his brain for the possible occasion of 
her depression. Hazel, with childish dignity, did not offer to help 
him in the matter, and they drove for a few moments in a silence 
broken only by the creak of the weather-beaten stage, and the 
regular, monotonous rattle of the loose-fitting harness. Down 
through the dusty yellow leaves of the roadside trees the sunlight 
filtered, to the dustier hedges below, and there was little or no life 
in the air. Indeed, it was a morning when one had need to be very 
much preoccupied no^ to feel blue, as Hazel called it, and a dis- 
criminating person might have deemed the weather in a measure 
responsible for her down-heartedness. Meanwhile the horses jogged 
along at the merest little pretence of a trot, and, missing the 
customary, “ Get-up, Jenny !” and “ Whist there, Kate!” subsided into 
a walk, varied more than once by a deliberate standstill, whenever 
the “ off-leader” saw fit to dislodge a persistent fly by the aid of a 
hind hoof. “ Look here, driver 1” called one of the passengers at 
last, “ there’s a snail on the fence there, that will beat us into town if 
you don’t look out.” The fact was, Joe had not only put his think- 
ing-cap on, but had pulled it so far down over his ears, that he had 
quite forgotten all about his horses and Hazel, and his thoughts had 
gone “ wool-gathering,” as old people’s thoughts have a fashion of 
going. “ Get along with you,” he called to the tired team, 
thoroughly roused from his reveries, and spurring them into greater 
activity with his long whip-lash ; then, turning to Hazel, he said — 
“ Come to think of it, I should not wonder if you are blue about 
that little Starlight matter.” 

“ Little Starlight matter ! Do you think it’s a little matter, Mr. 
Ainsworth, to be kept out of your house and have a lot of soldiers 
living in it 

“ But they are King George’s soldiers ; that ought to make it all 
right in your eyes. Miss Hazel.” 

“ Oh, the men are not to blame ; they have to do as the officers 
tell them ; but I hate that old Captain Wadsworth. Sometimes I 
think I’ll write and tell King George what a dreadful man he is, for 



story. “ You know the Starlights. Well, they’ve lived right on that 
same piece of land ever since Job’s great-great-grandfather, who 
was an Englishman, married a Dutch wife and came to live in New 
York. Why, there weren’t more than half-a-dozen houses here 
when they came, and if anybody has a right to their land and their 
house, they have. They used to be a very big family, the Starlights 
did, but now there’s only Job left and his Aunt Frances. She’s the 


14 A LOYAL LLTTLE LEE-COAT. 

I don’t believe he knows. But, after all, they say it’s an American, 
our own Colonel Hamilton, that’s most to blame.” 

“Alexander Hamilton! Why, how’s that.^” exclaimed Joe, 
knowing well enough, but wishing to hear Hazel grow eloquent on 
the subject. 

“Well, this is how it is, Mr. Ainsworth,” and Hazel folded her 
hands and composed herself for what promised to be quite a long 


‘"Well, this is how it is, Mr. Ainsworth.” 


ON THE ALBANY COACH 


15 


loveliest lady, Joe, and so very fond of Starlight (that’s Job), and 
Starlight is just as good to her as a boy can be. Well, one night, 
nearly two years ago, a party of English soldiers (some of them 
were awful bad fellows, Joe, even if they were the Kings men) went 
about the street doing just about as they pleased, and Miss Avery — 
that is. Aunt Frances — was very much frightened, as well she might 
be, and the next day she packed up and took the ferry to Paulus 
Hook, to stay with some friends of hers, who live over there and 
own a big farm.” 

“You mean the Van Vleets, don’t you?” questioned Joe, now 
wisely dividing his attention between Hazel’s narrative and his 
horses, who were only too quick to detect any lack of vigilance on 
his part. 

“ Yes, do you know them, Joe.?” 

“ Know ’em like a book. Miss Hazel. Old Jacob Van Vleet 
has been over the road with me scores of times.” 

“Well, they’re very kind people, Joe, and Starlight and his aunt 
are living there still, only now that the war is over they want to 
come back.” 

“And that’s not an easy thing to do, is it,” laughed Joe, “ when 
your house is full of English officers and their men 

“ But the soldiers have no right there, Joe, and the worst of it is, 
Captain Wadsworth says he is going to resign his commission and 
stay after his men go back to England, and make it his own home. 
He says it belongs to him. It was given to him, after Miss Avery 
left it, by what they call a military order. But, military order or no, 
Joe, that house belongs to Aunt Frances.” 

“ Of course it would seem so, Miss Hazel — ” 

“ And if it hadn’t been for Colonel Alexander Hamilton she’d be 
in it to-day, Joe. You see she went to law about it, and they say 
Colonel Hamilton, who took Captain Wadsworth’s side, is so smart 
and so handsome that he just talked the court into deciding against 
her.” 

“ It certainly was mighty queer in Lawyer Hamilton,’’ said Joe, 
meditatively, “to turn against his own side in that fashion; but, 
Miss Hazel, why don’t you go and see him about it .?” 

Hazel looked up a moment with a questioning gaze to see if he 
were quite in earnest. 


i6 A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT. 

“ That is just what I am going to do this very day,” she answered, 
reassured, “ and first I want to see Captain Wadsworth. Let me 
down at the Starlights’ gate, please.” 

So a few moments later the Albany coach reined up in front of 
the Starlight homestead, and Hazel, jumping quickly down from 
the coach with a “ Thank you for the ride, Joe,” swung open the 
old Dutch gate with an air well calculated to make the heart of 
Captaii^W adsworth quake. 


CHAPTER II. 


HAZEL SPEAKS HER MIND. 

than one pair ears 
'd the creak of the clum- 
sy Dutch gate as it swung 
on its hinges for Hazel, 
for every door and win- 
dow of Captain Wads- 
worth’s quarters stood 
wide open to catch all 
there was of any little 
cooling breeze which 
might bestir itself that 
close September morn- 
ing. And more than one 
pair of eyes glancing in 
the same direction saw 
Hazel coming up the 
path and brightened at the sight of her. They knew her well, all those 
English soldiers, for she had often accompanied her father when he 
had come among them on business, and while he was busy here and 
there, had chattered in her frank, fearless way with one and another. 
Indeed, owing to her loyalist principles and a little red coat which 
she was in the habit of wearing, she was familiarly known among the 
rank and file of his Majesty’s service as “ Little Red-Coat,” and 
often addressed by that name. But this was her first visit all by her- 
self, and, to tell the truth. Hazel had some misgiving as to its propriety, 
and as to her own behavior in running off in this fashion, for she had 
announced her departure to no one. Her sister Josephine, however, 
had happened to see her taking her seat on the Albany stage, and 
wondered what she was up to. But “runaway” or no, the eyes that 
saw Hazel Boniface did nevertheless brighten at the sight of her, 


a 



i8 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT. 


from those of Captain Wadsworth’s old body-servant, who was 
brushing the Captain’s clothes very vigorously from one of the 
dormer-windows in the steep sloping roof, to those of the Captain 
himself, who sat tipped back in a great arm-chair in a corner of the 
wide piazza. 

Good-morning, Hazel,” said the Captain, rising to meet her. 
“ Have you come on some errand for your papa, or simply to pay us 
a nice little visit and cheer us up a bit English soldiers need 
cheering nowadays, you know.” 

“Yes, I know,” said Hazel, sympathetically; for, true to her 
Loyalist sentiments, she felt sorry enough that these same English 
soldiers had not been successful in the war they had been waging ; 
but her mind was intent at present on her own private business. 

“ I have come just to make you a little visit. Captain Wads- 
worth,” she continued, “ and to talk to you a little, and I don’t believe 
I can cheer you up at all, because I am pretty blue myself.” 

The corners of Captain Wadsworth’s mouth twitched at the 
thought of such a fair and youthful little specimen indulging in the 
blues; but he succeeded in asking gravely, as he led the way in- 
doors, “ Why, how ever can that be 1 Come right into the office 
here and tell me all about it.” 

“ This isn’t the office at all,” she said, emphatically, as she took 
her seat on a little Dutch rocker that had been Aunt Frances’s 
sewing-chair. “ This is the sitting-room, and it’s dreadful. Captain 
Wadsworth, to see it so dusty.” 

Captain Wadsworth looked decidedly puzzled and astonished for 
a moment, then he added, slowly, “ Oh, I see ! I suppose you knew 
the people who used to own this house ?” 

“ Yes, sir, and I know them now ; they’re the very best friends I 
have ; and, if you please, this house belongs to them still, and they 
would like to come back just as soon as you can move your men 
out, and,” noting a few unfamiliar objects in the room, “ your furni- 
ture and other things.” 

It must be confessed that this was rather a bold speech for a little 
maid to venture quite upon her own authority, but Hazel had made 
this visit for no other reason than plainly to speak her mind, and 
speak it she would, though she did have to screw her courage up to 
the very highest pitch in order to accomplish it. 


HAZEL SPEAKS HER MIND. 


19 


“ Do you mean to say, Miss Hazel, that you think we have no 
right here ?’' questioned the Captain. 

“ Yes, sir,’’ Hazel answered warmly, feeling, somehow, that Cap- 
tain Wadsworth was open to conviction. “ You see you really have 
no right here at all, and I thought that as soon as you understood 
that you would not stay another minute.” 

“ But the trouble is, I don’t understand it ; the law says it be- 
longs to me, you know.” 

“ Then I guess the law does not tell the truth, Captain Wads- 
worth, because even the law cannot make a thing so that isn’t so, 
can it 

“ Why, no, certainly not, and it isn’t supposed to even try to do 
that sort of thing, I take it.” 

“ But that’s just what it does exactly,” said Hazel, and in her 
eagerness she deserted the little rocker and came and leaned on the 
desk near to the Captain. “ You know,” she said, confidentially, 
“ I’m just as true to King George as true can be, and 1 am awful 
sorry his soldiers have been beaten, and I don’t think a country 
without a King is any good at all. Sometimes I’m almost ashamed 
that I was born here ; but still, some very nice people, like Miss 
Avery and Starlight, do not think just as I do, and I think their 
rights ought to be respected.” 

These were pretty big words, and the Captain looked as though 
he thought so ; but even a verj little woman, when she is very much 
in earnest, sometimes finds language at her command quite as 
astonishing to herself as to her hearers. “ Rights ought to be re- 
spected” — certainly that did sound remarkable. Hazel herself won- 
dered where she had picked up so fine an expression, and one that 
suited so well. 

“ Who is Starlight T asked the Captain, willing to digress a 
little from the main point. 

“The owner of this house,” said Hazel, not willing to digress 
at all. 

“ Why, I thought it used to belong to Miss Avery ; the property 
certainly stood in her name.” The Captain was careful to use only 
the past tense. According to his way of thinking, that Starlight 
homestead was just as rightfully his as though he had bought and 
paid for it. 


20 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT. 


“ Oh, yes, it may stand in her name,” Hazel replied, just as 
careful to use only the present tense, and not a little proud that she 
understood what Captain Wadsworth meant, “ but it always seems 
as though it belongs to Starlight, and it will really when Aunt 
Frances dies.” Then recalling Captain Wadsworth’s question, she 
quickly added, “ Starlight is Miss Avery’s nephew, and my best 
friend.” Quite a pause followed this last statement. Hazel toyed 
with the quill pen lying on the Captain’s desk, and waited for him 
to speak — and the Captain was at his wits’ end to know how to 
speak. 

How could he ever explain the ins and outs of the law to this 
earnest little maiden, with one idea so firmly implanted in her mind 
as scarce to admit of the entrance of any other. Finally a bright 
thought occurred to him. 

“ Look here. Miss Hazel,” he said, Why don’t you go and see 
the lawyer, Colonel Hamilton 1 I think he can explain things to 
you satisfactorily.” 

^‘Oh, I don’t care about having things explained,” Hazel 
answered with delightful nonchalance. I only want to have you 
move out, you know.” 

“Yes, to be sure, but then he will explain why I can’t move 
out.” Captain Wadsworth could not find it in his heart to say 
“ won’t move out,” which was what he really meant. Then came 
another pause. What more could the Captain say, and Hazel’s 
failing hopes left her for a moment mute and crestfallen. I think 
I will go to Colonel Hamilton,” she said at last, with a little sigh. 
“ Where does he live T 

“ Not very far from here ; his office is in this same street a few 
squares farther down,” and there was something also suggestive of a 
sigh even in the Captain’s voice as he spoke. It would have taken 
a pretty hard heart to complacently tliwart the cherished plan, 
no matter how unreasonable, of such an earnest little suppliant, and 
the Captain’s heart was not in any sense a hard one, though Hazel, 
no doubt, had her own opinion on that subject. If he could have 
done as she wished, no one, of course, from that time forward would 
have stood higher in her eyes. As it was — well, she did not see how 
any honest man could act like that, and yet, somehow, she admitted 
to herself, the Captain did seem to think that he was doing right. 



“ The Captain bowed Hazel out as gallantly as though she had been a little princess, 



22 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RELO-COAT. 


And so Hazel said, Good-by, Captain,” and the Captain bowed 
her out of his office as gallantly as though she had been a little 
princess. Four or five of the men had gathered on the porch out- 
side, thinking to have a chat with her when she should have fin- 
ished her errand with the Captain, but Hazel, absorbed in her own 
thoughts, was about to pass them by without so much as a word. 

“ Look here, Miss Hazel, aren’t you going to speak to a fellow.?” 
one of the men called after her. “Yes, of course I am,” Hazel 
replied, as though that had been her full intention, and, going back, 
held out her hand to Sergeant Bellows, the man who had called to 
her, and then, as it seemed to be expected of her, shook hands in a 
friendly way with the other men, all of whom she knew by name. 
But it was easy enough for the dullest among them to discover that 
her greeting lacked all its wonted cheeriness. Indeed, Hazel had 
not yet learned the need of disguising her real feelings, and always 
^‘carried her heart on her sleeve,” as the saying goes, so that you 
were at perfect liberty to share all its sentiments, whether of joy or 
sorrow. So it was not strange that for the third time she was 
questioned as to the reason for her evident depression. “ Feeling a 
little down this morning, eh.?” asked Sergeant Bellows. 

Hazel nodded her head in assent. “There’s nothing an old 
sergeant could do for you, is there, Miss Hazel .?” 

“ Nor a corporal .?” asked one of the other men. 

“ Nor a high private .?” asked another. Hazel took their offers 
of assistance in perfect good faith, and would not have hesitated to 
call upon any or all of them, but she really did not see how they 
could be of any use to her, and shook her head hopelessly. 

“No, I think not. The only man who can help me now is 
Colonel Hamilton, and I don’t expect very much of him. What I 
came down for was to ask Captain Wadsworth if he would not let the 
people who own this house come back to it ; but be does not think 
they own it at all any more, and I don’t see what they are ever 
going to do. How would you feel, I’d like to know,” she asked, 
eagerly, “ if you were an aunt and a little boy, and had to run away 
from your home, and, when you wanted to come back, found an 
English Captain living in it, who said he was going to stay 
there.?” Some of the men looked as though they could not 
possibly tell how they would feej if they were “an aunt and a little 



HAZEL SPEAKS HER MIND. 


boy,” but they were saved the embarrassment of being obliged to 
answer such a difficult question by Hazels abrupt departure. She 
had suddenly spied a familiar hat lurking behind the shrubbery 
near the gate, and was off 
in a flash. “ Good-by,” she 
called back, “some one is 
for me.” Some one 
for her — some 
one had been waiting for her 
quite awhile and had grown 
rather impatient in the wait- 


waiting 
was waiting 


“ I thought you would 
never come. Hazel,” said the 
owner of the hat, as soon as 
she swept down upon him 
in his retreat behind the 
bushes. 

“ Why, I did not see you 
till a moment ago. How 
long have you been here, and 
when did you come T 

“ I came over on the ear- 
liest ferry this morning. I 
pulled an oar and worked my 
way over. You know, Ha- 
zel, I do not like to ask Aunt 
Frances for money now if I 
can possibly help it.” 

“Yes, I know,” she an- 
swered, sadly. 

“ I can’t tell you how it 
makes me feel, Hazel, to look 
up at the old house there 
with all those soldiers in it,” 
said Job, rather savagely, 
for, of course, the new-comer 
was none other than Star- 


“ I can’t tell you how it makes me feel, Ha- 
zel, TO LOOK UP AT THE OLD HOUSE THERE WITH 
ALL THOSE SOLDIERS IN IT.” 


24 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT. 


light himself. “ Fd just like to rush right in and choke every one 
of ’em.” 

“And Fd like to help you,” Hazel replied warmly. 

Starlight looked up astonished. It was something new for 
Hazel to side against the Red-Coats, and he gave a low whistle of 
surprise. 

“ Yes, really, I would,” Hazel reiterated. “If King George’s 
men had beaten you Americans, I suppose you wouldn’t have ex- 
pected to get your home back again ; but to think that you have 
beaten, and yet that Captain Wadsworth says he is going to stay in 
it, and that a great lawyer, and one of your own officers, like 
Colonel Hamilton, says he has a right to — well, I can’t under- 
stand it.” 

“ Neither can I,” said Starlight, indignantly; and both children 
seriously shook their heads from side to side, as there was no gain- 
saying that great man. By mutual consent the children had turned 
their backs on the homestead and their faces in the direction of 
Hazel’s home. 

To say that, side by side, they strolled up the Bowery, and that 
now and then Hazel would pause a moment to pick a plumy spray 
of asters, growing by the wayside, must sound funny enough in the 
ears of any one who knows what the Bowery is to-day. Can it be 
possible that that great busy thoroughfare, with its block after block 
of cheap shops, crowded tenements, dime museums, and who 
knows what, less than a hundred years ago was a country lane 1 and 
where to-day train after train goes whizzing by on its mid-air track, 
birds sang in apple-tree boughs and children gathered daisies in 
spring-time and golden rod in autumn Yes, my dear, it is 
possible; for who can measure the great transforming power of 
even a single century, and Father Time has never wrought vaster or 
more rapid changes than in the self-same hundred years which lie 
between the childhood of Starlight and Hazel, in 1783, and yours of 
to-day. 

So, true it was that our little friends strolled up Bowery Lane, 
for that was the pleasantest way home, and true it was that the lane 
was skirted with orchards and the gardens of old Dutch homesteads, 
where almost every variety of autumn flower was blooming, in a 
blaze of color, in the early September weather. 


HAZEL SPEAKS HER MIND. 


25 


At the prospect of a visit from Starlight, Hazel had at once 
abandoned all thought of an immediate call upon Lawyer Hamilton. 
Even that important matter could be postponed for the delight of 
companionship with this old friend, a companionship sadly inter- 
fered with by all the untoward circumstances of the times in which 
they lived. 

“ And Colonel Hamilton says,” Starlight resumed, after five or 
ten minutes, which had been devoted to a plying of eager questions 
regarding each other’s general welfare, “ that Captain Wadsworth 
can stay in our house, does he T 

“ I don’t know exactly what he says ; something like that, I 
guess ; but I am going to find out for myself, and ask him the 
reasons, too. I was going there this morning if you had not come.” 

“ You are awfully good. Hazel.” 

“ I’m glad you think so. Starlight, ’cause I know some people 
who don’t,” and Hazel indulged in a little sigh. “ I suppose I shall 
have a scolding when I get home, this very morning, for I sort of 
ran away. I saw the Albany coach coming, and I had to hurry so 
in time to stop it, that I did not think to ask Josephine’s leave or 
anybody’s.” 

“ But Josephine saw you go. That’s the way I found you. She 
saw Joe Ainsworth help you on to the coach, and I thought perhaps 
you’d gone down to the homestead, for that’s where you always used 
to come on the Albany coach, you know.” It was Starlight’s turn 
for a sigh now, and he drew such a heavy one that it seemed fairly 
to come from the bottom of his boots. 

“Say, Starlight,” said Hazel, suddenly, and, no doubt, with a 
desire to brighten matters up a bit, “ an English circus came to 
town to-day. They open to-morrow. Can you stay over to- 
morrow T 

“ Yes, till the day after. I heard about the circus. I’ve never 
been to a circus in my life, and Ed give — why, I’d give anything 
I own to go, and if that wouldn’t do, I half believe I’d almost 
hook something.” The question of ways and means was ever 
present nowadays to poor Job with his sadly depleted pocket-book. 

“ I don’t believe you’ll need to hook anything. Starlight,” an- 
swered Hazel, with an implied rebuke, which was, of .course, quite 
proper, “ I have a little money of my own.” 


26 


A LOYAL LLJ-'TLE RED-COAT. 


“ Of course, I don’t mean I really would, Hazel. I should 
think you’d know that I’m rather above that sort of thing. If you 
don’t, you ought to, by this time. I only meant that I should very 
much like to go.” 

“Then next time you had better be more careful to say just what 
you mean. Job.” Whenever Hazel had any little reproof to ad- 
minister she thought it much more impressive to make use of Star- 
light’s solemn little first name. 



}' 



CHAPTER III. 


THE CIRCUS, AND WHAT CAME OF IT. 



^1 LOWLY out of the great ocean 
rose the sun the next morning, 
^ shooting his long rays over level 
^1^^ Long Island, spanning the East 
River and touching with rosy 
^ 1 light the hill on which Captain 
Boniface had built his comfort- 
able home. What a wonderful 
^ tale, provided his memory is 
good and his eyesight strong, 
L this same old sun could tell, par- 
r" ticularly if he had the moon to 
help him, for, whether shining 
brightly, or peering through mists of 
heavy clouds, between them they have 
seen most of this world’s doings. One 
thing is certain, however, change, 
change, change would be the theme of 


all their story. Qld ocean alone re- 


mains always the same; for even the “everlasting 
hills” may be pierced by boring tunnels and disfig- 
ured by the shafts and engines of unsightly mines. 


And this that is true of the whole world is true of every inhabited 
corner of it, and doubly true of that particular corner where we find 
New York mapped out to-day. Row upon row of dwellings — 
mansion and hut crowding close upon one another ; mile after 
mile of stores, warehouses, and every conceivable sort of structure, 
and yet only a hundred years, and lo ! there was none of it. 


28 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT, 


Do you chance to know where St. Paul’s Church stands on 
Broadway, on the block bounded by Fulton and Vesey streets } 
Then let me tell you that no longer ago than 1 784 St. Paul’s was 
on the very outskirts of the city. Just above it were two fine 
dwellings, which now form part of the Astor House, and a little 
farther on a highway leading to the right bore the weather-beaten 
sign, “ The Road to Boston,” and another turning to the left, “ The 
Road to Albany,” and Hazel’s home was a mile or more out on 
this Albany road. Beyond were only open fields, with here and 
there a farm-dwelling or country homestead, and an occasional 
“ mead-house” or “tea-garden,” for the refreshment of jaded travel- 
lers, or pleasure-seeking parties from the town. Nearly on the site 
of the present City Hall stood the almshouse, and in close 
proximity the jail, while sandwiched in between them were the 
gallows, not exactly affording what might be called a cheery out- 
look to the poor unfortunates obliged to seek such food and shelter 
as the almshouse offered. These gallows were enclosed in a build- 
ing shaped like a Chinese summer-house, and painted in all the 
colors of the rainbow, as though trying thereby to overcome 
any mournful associations which the place might otherwise possess. 
A platform within this remarkable building supported various con- 
trivances for conveniently “ dropping malefactors into eternity,” 
while a row of hooks and halters adorned the ceiling, so that at 
least half a dozen offenders might be dispatched by the same 
method at one and the same moment. 

Wall Street, in 1783, was a street of residences. Here was the 
bachelor homestead of Daniel McCormick, upon whose stoop, on a 
mild and pleasant afternoon, you were likely to find a goodly little 
company of cronies and toadies, each and all of whom made it a 
point never to refuse an invitation to remain to dinner and enjoy 
his excellent pot-luck. 

The court end of the town lay in the region extending from 
Pearl Street around to the Battery, and up to Trinity Church, while 
the shops and offices were confined to Maiden Lane. On Great 
Dock Street, now a part of Pearl Street, lived the widow of John 
Lawrence, who, during his lifetime, was widely known as “ Hand- 
some Johnnie.” There, as Dr. Duer puts it, in his “Reminiscences 
of an Old Yorker,” the genial widow kept open house for her rela- 


THE CIRCUS, AND WHAT CAME OF IT, 


29 


tives, or rather her relatives kept open house for themselves, and 
were entertained in the roll of “transient, constant, or perpetual” 
visitors. All this and far more could the sun of to-day tell of the 
sights of the last century; but on the morning of which we are 
writing, he looked down upon nothing of greater interest to the 
average boy and girl of all time, than when he flashed suddenly 
upon the preparations going forward for the circus that had lately 
arrived from across the water, and because of whose arrival there 
was a flutter in all the child-hearts throughout the length and 
breadth of the town. Some were fluttering joyously with actual 
anticipation, and some with grave doubts as to their gaining even 
a peep at the wonderful show. 

As for Hazel Boniface, she was not only up with the sun, but 
up before it ; as for Starlight, he was dressed, and “ trying to kill 
time” a full hour before breakfast, for it had been settled the pre- 
vious evening that they were to be allowed to attend the perform- 
ance, and Captain Boniface had slipped the coins necessary for their 
admission into Starlight’s safe keeping. Josephine, Hazel’s older 
sister, was also early astir, stowing away the most inviting of 
luncheons within the snowy folds of a napkin, which in turn was 
committed to the keeping of a little wicker hamper. 

Joyous and beaming the children set forth, Josephine accom- 
panying them as far as the gate. “ I wish I were going with you,” 
she said, as she held it open. 

“I almost wish you were,” Hazel answered. “Almost, but not 
quite,” laughed Josephine; “for it would spoil the fun a little, now 
wouldn’t it. Hazel, to have a grown-up sister in the party? But 
you need not worry, dear, the big sister must stay at home to mind 
the baby sister; it’s only the little middle-sized sister who can roam 
abroad, and go to the circus, and do whatever she likes all day 
long.” 

The color came into Hazel’s cheeks. She knew she did do 
pretty much as she wished from week’s end to week’s end, but that 
was not her fault. If nobody told her to do “things,” it was hardly 
to be expected she should do them. “Will you go in my place?” 
she asked, ruefully, of Josephine, who stood leaning on the gate 
with a merry, teasing look in her gray eyes. 

“ No, of course 1 won’t, dearie, and you come straight back and 



smaller and smaller in the maple-shaded distance of the roadside 
path, and with a little sigh Josephine turned back to her duties 
within-doors. There was a foreboding of coming evil in her heart, 


30 A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT, 

give me a kiss, and know that no one wishes you quite such a jolly 
time as your own sister Josephine.” 

And thus speeded on their way, the children’s figures grew 


“Will you go in my place?” she asked, ruefully. 


THE CIRCUS, A^n WHAT CAME OF IT. 


31 


and in Hazel’s and Starlight’s, too, for that matter. Children 
though they were, they were still old enough to know, that, now 
that the war had ended in the defeat of the English, those who had 
sided with them, as Captain Boniface had done, would have to 
suffer for it ; but for to-day every worry was utterly forgotten. 
Hazel had no thought for the coming interview with Colonel 
Hamilton — which, it must be confessed, she rather dreaded — nor 
Starlight for the soldiers in the old homestead. 

Right before them lay all the delights of a wonderful English 
circus, and with the lightest of hearts they set forth upon their 
happy expedition. Having strolled along in leisurely fashion, 
the old town clock struck eleven as they pressed in through 
the clumsy turnstile which barred the circus entrance, and the 
regular performance was not to commence until one. But two 
hours were none too much for the inspection of the wonderful side- 
shows, and wide-eyed they passed from one to the other, instinctively 
turning quickly away from two or three human monstrosities in a 
close, unsavory tent, to spend an hour of intense merriment over 
the antics of a family of monkeys in a cage in the open air. In- 
deed, , they doled out most of their luncheon to the mischievous 
little youngsters, actually forgetting that there was any likelihood of 
their ever being hungry themselves and repenting of such liberality. 

A great deal of fuss over a circus, you may be thinking, my 
little friend, having yourself been so many times to see “ The 
Greatest Show on Earth but if you had lived in the days of 
Hazel and Starlight, and never seen a circus in your life, nor a 
show of any kind — either great or small — then, perhaps, you would 
have been not a little excited too. 

Long before it was at all necessary, and after much consultation 
and numerous experiments at different angles, the children seated 
themselves at the precise point which they had concluded, on the 
whole, offered greatest advantages, and then they impatiently- 
watched the uncomfortable benches become gradually filled, and! 
certain significant preparations going forward on the part of the 
gayly-liveried lackeys. 

At last the orchestra of three ill-tuned instruments struck up a 
preliminary march, the low, red-topped gates of the ring swung 
open, and the gorgeous company pranced in, dazzling and brilliant 


32 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT, 


indeed, in the eyes of the children. What did it matter if tinsel 
were tarnished, and satins and velvets travel-stained and bedraggled. 
They saw it not. It was all glitter and shimmer to them, and, oh, 
those beautiful, long-tailed horses with their showy trappings ! 
Hazel silently made up her mind on the spot, that she would be a 
circus-rider herself as soon as she was old enough, if her father 
would let her. She changed her mind later in the day, however, 
owing to certain unexpected experiences, and was thankful enough 
that she had not openly expressed her resolution of a few hours 
before. 

Midway in the performance, as the clown had announced, for 
they did not have printed programmes in those days, there was to 
be some lofty tumbling by the Strauss brothers, and at the proper 
moment in they came leaping and jumping. They were all attired 
in the regulation long hose, short trousers, and sleeveless jackets of 
the professional tumbler, but it was easy enough for any child to 
detect at a glance that it was quite impossible that they should 
belong to the same family. They were of all ages and sizes, but the 
youngest performer did not appear to be more than twelve ; he 
was a handsome little fellow, with a fine dark complexion, and from 
the first both Hazel’s and Starlight’s attention centred upon him. 
He proved himself the most agile of all the brothers, eagerly, 
watching for his turn every time, and apparently enjoying the per- 
formance almost as keenly as the audience. But it happened after 
a while, that when he had just accomplished the feat of turning a 
double somersault from the top of a spring-board, he did not attempt 
to rejoin the other leapers and tumblers, but crept from the place 
where he had landed in the sawdust to the edge of the ring, seated 
himself, with his little slippered feet straight out before him, and 
leaned comfortably back against its rail. The spot he had chosen 
was directly underneath where Hazel and Starlight were sitting, 
and bein^ in the first row they naturally leaned over to investi- 
gate matters. ‘ He sat there so comfortably, and his older 
brothers seemed so indifferent to the fact that he had dropped from 
their number, that the children came to the conclusion that he was 
simply taking a little permitted rest. 

At last Starlight made so bold as to ask, “ Say, Straussie, you 
didn’t hurt yourself any way, did you ?” 


THE CIRCUS, AND WHAT CAME OF IT. 


33 


At the sound of Starlight’s voice the little fellow looked up sur- 
prised. “ Yes, I did,” he replied, “ I often slip my knee-cap, or 
something like that when I take that double ’sault.” 

“ Does it hurt you now,” asked Hazel, with real solicitude. 

“Yes, a little. I can’t jump any more to-day. The men know 
what’s the matter with me. I’ll be all right in a little while.” 

“Do you like being in a circus continued Starlight, for it was 
even more interesting to converse with a member of the troupe 
than to watch the performance of the troupe itself 

“ I like the jumping and tumbling ; that’s all the part I like,” 
ending with a sigh. 

But it was not easy to carry on a conversation at the distance 
they were from each other, particularly as the tumblers, as if to add 
to the excitement, kept up an almost ceaseless hallooing and shout- 
ing. Now it happened that the ring, with the exception of the 
gates of entrance, was formed by a short canvas curtain suspended 
from a circular iron rail. Observing this, a happy thought occurred 
to Starlight. 

i“Look here, Straussie,” he said, in a penetrating whisper, “ I’d 
like to talk with you. Couldn’t you creep under the curtain there, 
and I’ll drop down between the seats.” 

“Yes, I could,” answered the little tumbler, grasping th^ situa- 
tion at once, and suiting the action to the word. 

“I wish I could drop too,” urged Hazel, longingly. 

“No, you stay where you are. It wouldn’t do. Hazel; folks 
might notice,” and Hazel was sensible enough to see the wisdom of 
the remark. As it was, every one was by far too much absorbed to 
take account of the fapt that a little fellow inside the ring and a 
little fellow outside of it had disappeared at one and the same 
moment. And so it happened that all unsuspected a very im- 
portant conversation was carried on, and a remarkable scheme 
planned under the crowded benches of that day’s performance. 
Meanwhile Hazel “sat on pins and needles.” Even “the most 
educated elephant in the world” failed to rouse much interest in a 
little maiden who knew an absorbing conversation to be going on 
almost within earshot and in which she longed to have a hand. 

“ What is your name.^^” asked Starlight, as soon as he had dropped 
safely to the dry grass, and had stretched himself beside the little 


34 


A LOYAL LITTLE RED-COAT 


tumbler, who sat with his knees gathered close to him and his hands 
clasped round them. 

Flutters,” answered the boy. 

“ That’s not your real name T 

“ That’s what they call me.” 

“ You mean the circus people?” 

Flutters simply nodded “yes.” Somehow he did not seem at 
first inclined to be quite as communicative as Starlight would have 
wished. 

“It must be fun to wear clothes like those,” he said, after a 
pause, eyeing his new friend from head to foot with evident 
admiration. 

“ Oh, it’s kind of fun for a while, but there isn’t much real fun. 
Everything’s only kind of fun, and there isn’t any fun at all about 
most things.” 

Starlight couldn’t quite agree with these sage remarks, although 
he had himself of late been seeing a great deal of the darker side of life. 

“ I guess you’re not very well. Flutters,” he said, seriously ; “or 
perhaps you’re tired.” 

“ Oh, I’m well enough, but I’m not over-happy,” answered the 
boy, who, from little association with children and much with older 
people, had formed rather a mature way of speaking. 

“ What makes you feel like that ?” asked Starlight. 

“ Oh, lots of things. There’s no one who cares for me ’cept to 
make money out of me. That’s kind of hard on a fellow.” 

“ Don’t you get some of the money yourself?” 

“ Not a penny. You see. I’m ’prenticed to the manager till I’m 
eighteen.” 

“ Who apprenticed you T said Starlight, taking care to speak 
correctly. 

“ The manager, I suppose ; but I did not know anybody had to 
’prentice you. I thought you just ’prenticed yourself by promising 
to work for your board.” 

“Not a bit of it. You oughtn’t to have made such a promise. 
If you were worth anything to the manager you were worth part of 
the money you earned. Besides, I don’t think anybody can 
apprentice a boy except his parents or his guardian, or some one 
who has charge of him.” 


THE CIRCUS, AND WHAT CAME OF IT. 35 

“ Well, nobody’s had charge of me this long while.” 

“ Is that big man with the great black moustache the manager?” 
•asked Starlight. 

“Yes, he is, and he’^ a tough one,” and Flutters pressed his lips 
tightly together and shook his head by way of emphasis. 

“ He doesn’t look kind.” 

“ Folks doesn’t look things what they never are.” 

“ Why don’t you cut the circus. Flutters . 


“ Y ou mean run away ?” 

Starlight nodded yes. 

“ Where to T was Flutters’s pointed question. 

“ Oh, anywhere,” somewhat vaguely. 

“ That’s all very well; but board, you know, and a blanket to roll 
yourself in at night is a little better than nothing at all. 

“ That’s so,” said Starlight, and then sat silent a few moments. 



Would you, really?” 


36 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT. 


drawing his fingers, rake fashion, through the dry grass in front of 
him, and evidently thinking hard. 

“ Flutters,” he said at last, “ if you ran away I believe you’d find 
a home and somebody to care for you — we’d look out for you 
ourselves. Aunt Frances and I, till something turned up.” 

“ Would you, really and Flutters leaned very close to Star- 
light in his eagerness. 

“ Yes, Fm sure we would. Will you do it T' 

“Yes, sir. I’ll do it now,” and Flutters got straightway on to 
“ all fours,” as if he deemed that the most silent and effective mode 
of escape, although the benches were hardly so low as to render it 
necessary for a boy of his size. 

“ But you’ll be caught in a minute in those — fixings.” Starlight 
did not think there was enough of them to deserve the respectable 
name of clothes. 

Flutters sat down in despair. “ Then there’s no use ; I may as 
well give it up if I have to go back for anything.” Flutters stood 
in such fear of the manager that he felt sure he could read his very 
thoughts. He honestly meant that he would abandon the whole 
scheme rather than face Mr. Bradshaw with such a design in mind, 
and he looked down at his spangled slippers and bedraggled tights 
in most woe-begone fashion. 

“ I have it,” said Starlight, after a moment’s serious cogitation ; 
“ wait here a minute and taking hold of a board directly under 
the seat where he had sat, he pulled himself up to his place beside 
Hazel. She was ready with a host of eager questions, but Starlight, 
in the most imperative of whispers, gave her quickly to understand 
that there was no time for anything of that sort. “ Just do as I tell 
you. Hazel,” some one overheard him say, but more than that they 
fortunately did not hear. 

A moment later Starlight disappeared, and a little red cloak, 
which Josephine had made Hazel carry with her, had disappeared 
too. 

Not long afterward, but it seemed a very long while to Hazel, 
the entertainment came to a close with a wild sort of farce, which 
everybody seemed to think pretty funny, but Hazel did not so 
much as smile. She had neither seen nor heard what was going 
on ; she had an important little piece of business ahead of her, and 


THE CIRCUS, AND WHAT CAME OF IT. 


37 


could hardly wait to be off and about it. If her seat had not been 
quite in the middle of the row, so that she would have been 
obliged to crowd past a long line of people, she simply could not 
have waited ; and now that the performance was actually over, she 
energetically pushed her way through one group after another, lin- 
gering about as if loath to desert the charms of the circus, and was 
clear of the great tent in almost less time than it takes to tell it. 
Off she darted down the road — down Broadway one would say to- 
day — for the gateway to the circus enclosure was exactly on the spot 
where Niblo’s Theatre has for so many years set forth its varied 
amusements. 

There was only one farm-house in the immediate neighborhood, 
and thither Hazel flew, bringing up at the threshold of its old 
Dutch kitchen in a state of breathless excitement. “ Mrs. Van 
Wyck,” she cried with what little breath she had left, as she peered 
over the half door that barred her entrance. 

“ In a moment, Hazel,” came a voice from the depths. “ I am 
putting some curd in the cheese press ; I’ll be up in a minute.” 

The minute afforded Hazel a much-needed breathing space, and 
when a rosy-cheeked Dutch Frau emerged from the horizontal door- 
way of the cool, clean-smelling cellar. Hazel was able to make 
known her request in quite coherent fashion. 

“Oh, Mrs. Van Wyck, will you let me have a pair of Hans’s 
trousers, and some shoes and a coat, and please, please don’t ask 
me what I want them for !” for she saw the question shaping itself 
on Frau Van Wyck’s lips; “ I’ll bring them home safe to-morrow, 
and tell you all about it.” 

The little woman looked decidedly astonished, but the child was 
so urgent, and withal such a little favorite of hers, that she could 
but accede to her request, and in a trice Hazel was off again with 
the coveted articles, in a snug bundle, swinging from one hand as 
she ran. 


CHAPTER IV. 


FLUTTERS. 



T may seem at first somewhat improb- 
able that Flutters should have been able 
to make his escape from the circus 
grounds without being noticed, but es- 
cape he did under Starlight’s cau- 
tious guidance. Every one was 
still intent on the performance 
itself ; outside were only a few 
straggling employees of the com- 
pany, and they were too much pre- 
occupied with the special duties 
assigned to them to pay any heed 
to the fact that a couple of boys 
were making their way through 
the grounds. Indeed, it was decidedly 
too common an occurrence to excite 
any suspicion. To be sure, Hazel’s cloak con- 
cealed neither the head nor feet of little Flut- 
ters; but velvet cap and satin slippers were tucked safely away, and 
the absence of hat and shoes was by no means unusual among the 
boyish rabble that found their way into the circus. The most dan- 
gerous, because the most conspicuous move in their plan of escape, 
would be the scaling of the high board fence, so they naturally made 
their way to its most remote corner. It needed but a moment for 
Flutters to scramble to its top and drop on the other side. Starlight 
made more clumsy work of it. It was not an easy thing to keep one’s 
hold on the slippery inside posts of the fence, and when he was 
near the top he heard some one calling at his back, which did not 


FL UTTERS, 


39 



tend to help matters. Astride the fence at last, however, he 
glanced down and saw a forlorn old man close at his heels, one of 
the drudges of the circus, whose duty it was to keep things cleared 
up about the grounds 

Look you there, you youngsters! what are you doing.?” he 
cried, in a cracked voice; but 
Flutters and Starlight were 
safe out of sight now, and 
smiled at each other with su- 
preme satisfaction. 

“ That’s Bobbin’s voice,” 
chuckled Flutters, as they 
walked off through the woods 
that grew close up to the 
circus ; “he could get over a 
mountain as easily as over 
that fence ; he has the rheu- 
matics awful bad, and he’s very 
old besides. .He’s the only 
one I mind about leaving.” 

Poor old Bobbin stood 
gazing up at the fence, and 
seemed wisely to come to the 
conclusion that there was no 
harm in a boy’s leaving the 
circus in that manner if he 
chose. The harm would be 
if he attempted to come in 
that way ; and so hobbled off 
to his dreary, back-breaking 
task of gathering up the pa- 
pers and stray bits of rubbish constantly accumulating on every side. 
It is possible, too, that even if he had recognized Flutters, and guessed 
his motive, he would not have tried to detain him. He had once been 
a tumblei himself, and knew enough of the trials of circus life to 
be willing, perhaps, that a promising little fellow should escape 


‘ Look you there, you youngsters ! what are 

YOU DOING?” 


them. 

The grove in which the boys found themselves was the only 


40 


A LOYAL LITTLE RED-COAT. 


piece of old forest land that remained in the near vicinity of the 
town, and was fitted up with rude tables and benches for the use of 
picnic parties. 

Starlight led the way to one of these tables, sat down, and com- 
fortably rested his folded arms upon it, as though they had reached 
their point of destination. Here was where Hazel was to meet 
them and, while they waited, the boys entertained each other with 
little scraps of their life histories ; but Starlight did not for a moment 
forget to keep eye and ear on guard for any one approaching. 
There was a hollow tree just at Flutters’s back, into which he could 
tumble in a flash and be securely hid should it become necessary. 
But the sound of their own low voices and the occasional fall of a 
pine cone or crackling of a branch was all that broke the still- 
ness. At last they heard a footfall in the distance, but Starlight 
knew that quick, short little step, and there was no need for 
Flutters to take refuge in the tree. Hazel had come with the 
precious bundle, that was all, and Flutters was straightway arrayed 
in Hans Van Wyck’s clothes, his dark little face not at all agreeing 
with the Dutch-looking coat and trousers ; but they answered the 
purpose of complete disguise, and what more could be wished for.^^ 
So the children set out for home at a brisk pace, not by the way 
they had come, but, so far as possible, by cross cuts and quiet lanes, 
to avoid observation. That their little tongues moved even faster 
than their feet was not at all strange, for, of course, they wanted to 
know all about each other. 

“Are you an Italian, Flutters?” asked Hazel, in the course of 
the cross-questioning. 

Flutters smiled, and shook his head in the negative. 

“Then I guess you’re Spanish,” remarked Starlight. 

“ No, not Spanish.” 

Hazel and Starlight looked mystified. He was certainly neither 
American nor English with that dark skin of his. 

“ What kind of people does that sort of hair grow on ?” Flut- 
ters asked, running his hand through his tight-curling hair. 

“On — on darkeys,” answered Hazel, ruefully. “ But it does not 
curl so tight as — as some darkeys,” hoping there might be a mistake 
somewhere. 

“ So much the better for me,” Flutters answered, cheerily. 



42 


A LOYAL LITTLE RED-COAT. 


“Are — you — a regular — darkey — really?” questioned Starlight, 
with a little pause between each word. 

“ Well, Fm what they call a mulatto ; that’s not quite so bad as 
an out-and-out darkey, perhaps.” 

“Oh, Flutters, don’t you mind asked Hazel, who was disap- 
pointed enough that the hero of this thrilling adventure should 
prove to be only a kind of negro. Hazel had an idea as, sadly 
enough, many far older and wiser than she had in those days — and, 
indeed, for long years afterward — that negroes were little better 
than cattle, and that it was quite right to buy and sell them in the 
same fashion. 

“ What would be the use of minding?” said Flutters, in response 
to her sympathetic question ; “ minding would not make things any 
different. Miss Hazel.” 

It was the first time he had called her by name, and Hazel, born 
little aristocrat that she was, was glad to discover that “ he knew 
his place,” as the phrase goes — so far, at least, as to put the Miss 
before her name. 

After this the children trudged along for a while in silence, each 
busy with their own thoughts. Starlight was beginning to have 
some misgivings as to the course he had taken. It might, after all, 
become a serious question what to do with Flutters. He began to 
wonder how Aunt Frances would look when he should go back to 
the farm-house next day with his little protege in tow. She would 
be pretty sure to say, “ What are you thinking of. Job dear? It is 
not at all as though we were in our own home, you know. We 
cannot allow the Van Vleets to take this strange little boy into 
their home for our sakes ; though no doubt they would be willing 
to do it.” 

Yes, the more he thought of it, the more he felt sure that would 
be just what she would say ; strange that all this had not occurred 
to him before, and a little sickening sensation— half presentiment, 
half regret — swept over him. So it was that Starlight trudged 
along in silence, for, of course, such thoughts as those could not 
be spoken with Flutters there to hear them. 

As for Hazel, she was turning over a fine little scheme of her 
own in her mind. She was a hopeful little body, and it did not 
take long for her to recover from the despair into which the dis- 


FLUTTERS, 


43 


covery of Flutters’s nationality had thrown her. “Why, look here,” 
she thought to herself, “ I believe I’m glad he’s a darkey after all. 
It was awful cute to hear him say ‘ Miss Hazel;’ how nice it would 
be to have him for a sort of body-servant, just as so many officers 
have body-servants ! He could brush my clothes, and groom the 
pony, and tend to my flower garden, and just stand ’round, ready to 
do whatever I should wish and so it was that Hazel trudged 
along in silence, for she thought it wiser not to announce, as yet, 
the exact nature of her thoughtful meditation. 

And Flutters — well, it would have been hard to tell about what 
he was thinking. He was a most sensitive little fellow, and strong 
and intense were the emotions that often played through his lithe 
frame, so strong and intense at times as to find no other expression 
than in a perceptible little tremble from head to foot ; it was this 
peculiarity that had won for him the expressive name of “ Flutters” 
among the circus people. Now, of course, his state of mind was 
joyous and satisfied. Kind friends and a home in this new land ! 
What more could be desired, and the happiest look played over his 
handsome face, for Flutters was handsome, and the dark olive com- 
plexion was most to be thanked for it ; but the light went out of 
his face when, after a while, he glanced toward Starlight and saw 
his troubled look. 

Instantly he divined its cause. “Are you sorry you took me.?” 
he asked, coming to an abrupt standstill in the brier-hedged lane. 

“No, not exactly;” Starlight was betrayed into a partial con- 
fession of the truth by the suddenness of the question. 

Oh, how that hurt poor little Flutters, with his sensitive tem- 
perament ! 

“ It is not too late,” he said, turning and looking in the direction 
they had come ; “ I think I can find my way back. They’d never 
know I’d regular runned away;” but there was a mistiness in 
the bright little darkey eyes, and an actual ache in the poor little 
heart. 

“ Flutters, / am not sorry then,” said Hazel, warmly ; and laying 
a firm hand on each shoulder, she turned him right about face again 
in the direction of her own home. “Just you trust to rne, Flutters, 
and you’ll never be sorry you ran away from that miserable old 
circus — never.” 


44 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT. 


And now, so completely was all gloom dispelled by these kind 
words, that back in a flash came the glad look into Flutters's face, 
and from that moment he was Hazel’s sworn servant. Starlight 
looked rather ashamed of himself, but, after all, his fears had 
some foundation, and he was thankful enough thus to have Hazel 
take matters into her own hands, and more than share the responsi- 
bility The sun was already down as the children neared the 
house, standing in clear-cut outline against the September sky. 
There were no clouds, only a marvellous gradation of color, shading 
imperceptibly from the dark, dark blue of the river and the hills 
beyond, up into the red glow of the sunset, and then again by some 
subtle transformation into a wonderful pale turquoise high over- 
head. 

It was indeed a beautiful fall evening, and Captain and Mrs. 
Boniface and Josephine, seated on the wide, pillared porch, were 
waiting for the coming of the children, and the exciting narrative 
that was sure to follow. “ Kate, the bonny-face baby,” as they used 
to call her, was there too, a sunny, winsome little daughter, almost 
three years old, and Harry Avery besides. Job Starlight’s cousin, 
a good-looking young fellow, and who lately had managed to 
spend a good deal of time at the Bonifaces. He had sailed over 
that morning from Paulus Hook (which, by the way, was the old 
name for Jersey City) with a fine little plan in mind for the day — a 
plan which he had already promised Hazel should some time be 
carried out ; but the absence of the children had made it necessary 
to postpone it for at least twenty-four hours. This Harry Avery 
was the oldest of a varied assortment of little brothers, and his home 
was in New London, Connecticut. But two years before he had 
enlisted as a volunteer on board a brig named “ The Fair American,” 
and not one of the little brothers had ever had a sight of the big 
brother since He had had a sorry enough time of it, too, for eigh- 
teen months of the twenty-four since he left home had been passed 
in the prison-ship “Jersey,” and he had only been released within 
the last few weeks, when the success of the American armies com- 
pelled the English to discharge all their prisoners of war. The old 
ship where so many brave men had lost their lives by privation and 
disease now lay a great deserted hulk in the waters of W allabout 
Bay, and what Harry had come over to propose was a sail over to- 


FL UTTERS. 


45 


have a look at her. He knew it would interest the children 
immensely, and he had proposed to Mrs. Boniface that Josephine 
should go with them, and Josephine, only too glad to fall in with 
any plan that involved being out on the water, had that morning 
concocted some very delicious little iced cakes with a view to the 
luncheon they would take with them on the morrow. Mean- 
while, the children were almost at the gate. “ Why, there’s Cousin 
Harry !” exclaimed Starlight, whose eyes were good at a long range. 

“ So it is,” said Hazel, excitedly ; and when they had passed a few 
steps farther on, she added, “ Now, Flutters, this is the best place 
for you to stop, and remember, when you hear me call, come quick 
as anything.” Flutters smiled assent, and stepped into the deeper 
shadow of one of the maples that edged the road. 

“ Well, here you are at last,” called Captain Boniface a few 
moments later from where he sat smoking in a great easy-chair on 
the porch. 

“ Yes, here we are,” answered Starlight, and they marched up the 
path and took their seats on the porch, Hazel having first kissed 
the family all round, not at all reluctantly including “ Cousin Harry,’" 
for his prison experience made him a wonderful hero in her eyes. 

Of .course they right away began to give an account, interrupted 
by a good many questions, of all they had seen and done. Mrs. 
Boniface thought, and thought rightly, that she detected a little 
sense of disappointment in their description, but did not know that 
that was easily accounted for by the insight they had had into the 
inner workings of a circus. They had indeed been greatly impressed 
with the velvet and spangles, but only until they had learned 
through Flutters what heavy hearts velvet and spangles could cover. 

Finally, at the close of quite a vivid description on Hazel’s part 
of the grand entrance march, which had proved to both the children 
the most impressive feature, Harry Avery remarked, just by way 
of taking some part in the conversation, “ that they ought to have 
brought a bit of the circus home with them for the benefit of people 
who had not been so fortunate as to see it.” Could there have 
been a better opportunity for the introduction of Flutters .? 

“We did bring a bit of it home,” cried Hazel; and then, stepping 
to the edge of the porch, she called, “ Flutters, Flutters!' at the top 
of her strong little lungs. Of course the Bonifaces looked on 



Flutters’s Introduction to the Family. 


FL UTTERS. 


47 


astonished at this performance, while Starlight, from suppressed 
excitement, bit his lip till he almost made the blood come ; but in a 
second, head over heels in a series of somersaults up the path, 
bounded a remarkable little creature in satin slippers, velvet cap and 
all, as real a bit of a circus as Cousin Harry or any one else could 
have desired. The little tumbler was, of course, acting under orders, 
and brought up at the step of the porch with the most beaming 
smile imaginable, and a most gracious little bow. 

“ Come right up. Flutters,’’ was Hazel’s reassuring invitation, and 
nothing abashed, but still beaming and smiling, so great was 
his confidence in Hazel, Flutters mounted the steps, swung himself 
into the hammock that was strung across the porch, and drew the 
netted meshes close about him, as though conscious of the scarcity 
of his apparel. 

There was a pause for a moment — that is, no word was spoken, 
but the four pairs of eyes belonging to Captain and Mrs, Boniface 
and Josephine and Harry were riveted upon Hazel, asking as 
plainly as words, “ What does this mean ?” while Starlight’s eyes 
were urging her in an imploring fashion to tell about it all right 
away. As for Flutters, the complacent, trustful gaze with which he 
regarded his little benefactress implied that he was sure she would 
proceed to explain matters to the entire satisfaction of everybody. 
Meantime little Kate looked on in admiring wonder, but fortunately 
her pretty head did not need to trouble itself with “ explanations of 
things.” She only knew that that little fellow in the hammock was 
“ awfully funny,” and extended her pretty hands toward him as 
though she would very niuch like to touch him. 

“ Well,” Hazel began at last with much the same air as a 
veritable showman, “ this little boy is named Flutters, and he 
did belong to the circus, but he does not belong to it any more. 
He has run away, and we’ve helped him to do it. Somehow he’s 
quite alone in the world, and he has to s’port himself, so he joined 
the circus ’cause he found he could do what the other tumblers did, 
and ’cause he heard they were coming to America. But he has 
not been at all happy in the circus,” and Hazel, pausing a moment, 
looked toward Flutters for confirmation of this sad statement, and 
Flutters bore witness to its truth by gravely shaking his head from 
side to side. Indeed all through her narration it was most amusing 


48 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT, 


to watch his expression, so perfectly did it correspond with every 
word she spoke. Little folk and old folk have a fashion of letting 
each passing thought write itself legibly on the face. It is only the 
strong “ in-between” folk who take great care that no one shall ever 
know what they chance to be thinking about. 

By this time Starlight began to show a desire to take a share 
in the telling of the story, but Hazel would none of it. She 
thought, perhaps unjustly, that he had proved somewhat of a 
coward in the latter part of the transaction ; at any rate, he himself 
had pushed her to the front, and there she meant to stay. “ No, he 
has not been at all happy,” she continued ; “ indeed, the manager 
has often been very cruel to him ; but I will tell you about that 
another time ” (for her eyes were growing a little tearful at the 
mere remembrance of some things Flutters had told them) ; “ and 
the way we came to know about it was this : sometimes when 
Flutters takes a great jump from the spring-board and turns a 
somersault two times in the air, he slips his knee-cap — that’s what 
you call it. Flutters, isn’t it (Flutters nodded yes), “ and then he 
has to slip it back again himself, and it hurts a good deal, so that he 
can’t jump any more for a while. Well, to-day he slipped it, and 
then he crawled over underneath where we sat, and we talked with 
him a little ; then Starlight told him to creep under the benches 
when no one was looking, and Starlight dropped down between the 
seats and talked with him some more.” 

“ And then we arranged,” Starlight now interrupted in such an 
unmistakably determined manner that Hazel allowed him to con- 
tinue, “ how he should run away, and he didn’t even go back for 
his clothes, because he says that the manager can almost see what a 
fellow’s thinking about, and he didn’t dare. So when we had fixed 
everything I climbed up to Hazel and told her what she was to do, 
and then I dropped down again, and Flutters put on Hazel’s cloak 
so as to cover him up a little, and we scooted. We came near 
being found out once, but we got over the great fence safe at last 
and into Beekman’s woods. There Hazel was to meet us with 
some of Hans Van Wyck’s clothes, if she could get them.” 

“And I did get them,” chimed in Hazel, for it was surely her 
turn once more, “and — but, oh !” stopping suddenly, “the clothes! 
Starlight, do hurry and get them, or some one coming along the 


FLUTTERS. 


49 


road may run off with them.” Starlight obeyed, frightened enough 
at the thought of the possible loss of the borrowed articles, and 
quickly returning with them to the great relief of both Hazel and 
himself. 

Then the story went on again, turn and turn about, Flutters 
gaining courage to join in now and then, till at last, when the 
twilight had given place to the sort of half darkness of a starlight 
night, and the fire-flies were flashing their little lanterns on every 
side, they had told all there was to tell, and three foot-sore little 
people confessed they were tired and sleepy and hungry, and glad 
enough to go indoors and do justice to a most inviting little 
supper, which Josephine had slipped away some time before to 
prepare. 

“ Bonny Kate” (as she was called more than half the time, after 
a certain wilful but very charming young woman in one of 
Shakespeare’s great plays) had long ago fallen asleep, and lay just 
where her mother, running indoors for a moment, had stowed her 
away in a corner of the great hair-cloth sofa in the dining-room. 
One pretty hand was folded under her rosy cheek, and such a merry 
smile played over her sweet face ! She surely rhust have been 
dreaming of a remarkable little fellow, in beautiful velvet and 
spangles, coming head over heels up a garden path. 


CHAPTER V. 



CAPTAIN BONIFACE RECEIVES AN ANGRY LETTER. 


T is one thing to help a much-abused 
and unhappy little member of a 
circus troupe to run away from 
his unhappy surroundings ; it 
is quite another thing to provide 
for all his future, particularly if, 
like Flutters, he has not a penny 
to his name nor a stitch to his 
back, none more serviceable, that 
is, than the ring costume of a 
high and lofty tumbler. And 
so it was that Mrs. Boniface 
and Josephine and Harry sat 
up well into the night, laugh- 
ing heartily now and then over 
the funny side of the children’s 
adventure, but talking gravely 
enough most of the time of its more serious side. 

“ As far as I can make out,” said Harry, “ Starlight rather 
expected to bring Flutters over to the farm to-morrow and ask 
Aunt Frances to care for him, at least till he found somebody else 
who would. I imagine his heart rather failed him later, as it ought 
to. Aunt Frances has enough to bother her at present.” 

“ But you don’t blame the children for helping the poor little 
fellow, do you?” said Josephine, warmly ; “I think almost anyone 
would have done the same thing under the same circumstances.” 

“ Very likely, Miss Josephine, but that doesn’t dispose of the 
troublesome question. What is now to be done with him 




CAPTAIN’ BONIFACE PECEIVES AN ANGPY LETTER. 51 

“ Unfortunately, there are questions to be met more troublesome 
than that,” said Captain Boniface, joining for the first time in the 
conversation, and he had only too good reason for speaking as he 
did. Early in the evening a letter had been brought him, to which 
no one had paid any attention. It was a daily occurrence for a 
messenger to turn in at the gate with a note for the Captain, since 
he had been for the last eight years the principal furnisher of sup- 
plies to the English soldiers stationed in the city, and had need 
both to write and receive many letters. Indeed, so loyal had he 
been to King George that, at the very commencement of the 
Revolution, he had joined the English army, but had had the 
misfortune to be very seriously wounded in the first battle that was 
fought. When at last, after weeks of constant suffering, he was 
able to be moved. General Gage, under whom he served, had con- 
trived to send him home by easy stages along the Boston post-road, 
under protection of an English escort; and Captain Boniface always 
declared, and no doubt he was right about it, that nothing short of 
his wife’s careful nursing would ever have brought him through. 
But after that it was out of the question for him to rejoin the army, 
so he must needs stay quietly at home and aid the King’s cause as 
best he could by helping to feed the King’s soldiers. All this, of 
course, had made enemies of most of the Captain’s old friends — 
Harry Avery was almost the only exception ; and now that the 
Colonies had been successful, matters were looking pretty serious 
for him and for every American who had sided with the King. 
The note that had just been brought to him proved a very 
threatening one. It as much as ordered him to leave the country, 
saying “that there was but one safe course for him and his, and that 
was to be gone instantly; that New York had no further use for 
him ; that the sooner her streets and coffee-houses were rid of him 
the better, and that he would simply be taking his life in his^ hands 
if he stayed.” It was truly a terribly alarming letter, but Captain 
Boniface, knowing that sooner or later his wife and Josephine 
would have to know about it, now broke in upon the conversation 
and read it to them. 

“ Who has dared to write you that T asked Mrs. Boniface. 

“ Four old friends, Mary ; that is the saddest part of it. 

Mrs. Boniface could hardly believe she heard aright, as Jose- 


52 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT, 


phine, taking the letter from her father s hand, read the names 
aloud. 

Mrs. Boniface sat pale and silent, looking straight before her, 
and not hearing another word that was said. She knew her husband 
well enough to feel assured that no such letter would move him a 
step from his home. Not he! He would remain and live the 
bitter persecution down. But would he be allowed to live it down ? 
There were cruel words in that letter. “ By remaining you simply 
take your life in your hands,” it said, and the terrible threat sent all 
sorts of dread possibilities thronging through her mind. 

With anxious faces, and quick-beating hearts, Josephine and her 
mother listened, as Harry Avery and the Captain talked late into the 
night. It was a great comfort to realize that although Harry was a 
Whig, and a strong one, too, he did not harbor any bitter feeling 
against them. “Perhaps,” thought Josephine gladly, “there are 
others like him.” 

It seemed as though Harry must have seen the gratitude in her 
expressive eyes, as he continued again and again to reassure the 
Captain of his full sympathy, and his determination to be of assist- 
ance to him in every possible way. 

“Well, what will you do about it, father.?” Josephine asked, 
as, just at midnight, she leaned over his chair to say good-night. 

“ Do about it, child .?” he said, taking her hands in both of his, 
“ Why, stay just where I am I” 

Mrs. Boniface shook her head gravely, as she and Josephine left 
the room together. She had known so well beforehand that he 
would say exactly that. 


CHAPTER VI. 


OFF FOR THE PRISON-SHIP. 



HAT a queer sort of thing 
it is, this regularly going 
to sleep and waking up 
again once in every 
twenty-four hours ; but 
people who have had a 
little experience in not 
going to sleep regularly, 
and in waking up at most 
unheard-of and irregular 
hours, will tell you that 
that experience is a deal 
queerer, and not so pleas- 
ant by half Some of the 
little folk who have need 
to be coaxed and urged 
to bed six nights out of 
the seven, would hardly 
dare to fret, I imagine, 
if they only knew that 
to be a sound sleeper is an accomplishment sorely envied by 
some of those grown-up people who may sit up as late as they 
choose. And if one of those wakeful, grown-up people should 
some day ask you, “ What is the secret of your sound sleeping, 
my little friend ?” just tell them that you think it is because you 
do not worry. Then if they say, “ That’s all very well ; children 
have no need to worry, they have fathers and mothers to lean 
upon tell them that they, too, have a Father, One far more 


54 


A LOYAL LLTTLE LEE-COAT. 


kind and loving than any earthly father, and that they could lie 
down at night as free from worry as any child if they would ; 
and who knows but they will learn a blessed lesson from you that 
will be well worth the learning. 

Now this little reverie has all been suggested by the fact that the 
Boniface household was waking up, all save old Dinah, the cook, for 
she had been up for an hour or more. She had once been Hazel’s 
nurse, and, since the beginning of the war, was the only servant the 
Bonifaces could afford to keep. How comfortable she made them, 
that faithful old Dinah, so that all one had to do was to waken 
and wash, and brush and dress, and then sit down to steaming 
coffee, delicate rolls, and the most savory little rasher of bacon, 
which Dinah always added as a “ relisher,” as she called it, to the 
more substantial part of the breakfast. Yes, they were waking, all 
of them, from anxious Captain Boniface to happy little Flutters, for 
Dinah’s vigorous ringing of the rising bell had thoroughly done its 
work. 

Each busy brain was taking up again the manifold threads of 
thought which had slipped from its hold when sleep had stolen 
across it so gently the night before. Captain Boniface instantly 
remembered the angry letter, as, of course, did Mrs. Boniface and 
Josephine, and so their waking was rather heavy hearted. Harry 
instantly remembered it too, but his second thought was of the 
pretty sail-boat moored down at the Boniface wharf, and of the plan 
for the day, and he was glad to open his eyes on blue skies and the 
sunshine that flooded his eastward room. Flutters woke with a 
smile. Indeed, he doubted if he should ever do anything but smile 
again, so sure was he that he had turned a very happy corner in his 
life. Starlight roomed with Flutters, and his first thought when he 
opened his eyes was how they were to manage to return those 
clothes of Hans Van Wyck’s, that Flutters was getting into with 
such an air of complacent ownership. Hazel’s little nl4nd took its 
first morning flight in the same direction as Harry Avery’s. The 
sail-boat, the bay sparkling in the sunshine, the visit to the old 
prison-ship — it all meant so much to her enthusiastic, pleasure-loving 
temperament. A certain uncomfortable and premeditated call 
upon Colonel Hamilton could easily be postponed to an indefinite 
future, with such delightful anticipations in the definite present. 


OFF FOR THE PRISON-SHIP. 55 

It seems heartless to be going off for a day’s jaunt, when father 
has so mueh to trouble him,” Josephine said, when, soon after 
breakfast, the little party of five, basketed and equipped, were 
starting down to the wharf. 

“ Not at all, Josephine,” answered her sweet-faeed mother, hold- 
ing bonny Kate by the hand as she spoke. “We will try and 
keep dear old papa cheery, won’t we, little daughter.?” then, seeing 
that Josephine still lingered, as though reluctant to go, she added, 
cheerily, “nothing would be gained by your staying, Josephine. 



Sailing out to the “Jersey.” 


Your father has some office work that will keep him in the house, 
so you can think of him as safe at home all day, and we are both 
of us glad enough to have you enjoy a little change.” So, some- 
what relieved in her mind, Josephine hurried down and joined the 
others, and soon the “ Gretchen,” with her white sail spread to the 
crisp morning breeze, sped out on the river, fairly dancing along 
the crests of the white caps that splashed against her prow with 
such a continuous and merry little thump and splutter. 

Wind and tide favored them, and Harry was an excellent sailor, 
so that in a comparatively short time they had left the waters of 
the Hudson behind them, had rounded Fort George, the Battery 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT. 


56 

of to-day, and were headed up the East River, with New York on 
the one side, and the then scattered town of Brooklyn on the other. 
Skilfully tacking in long slants from shore to shore, the wharves 
and shipping were soon exchanged for the sloping banks of Man- 
hattan Island on the left, and of Long Island on the right, and 
then suddenly the dismasted hulk of the old “Jersey’’ loomed up 
before them. 

She was a dreary enough looking object to any one, but if, like 
Harry, you had been a prisoner aboard of her for eighteen long 
months, you would, like him, no doubt, have shuddered at the sight 
of her. Josephine shuddered too. “Oh, do not let us go any 
nearer!” she said. 

“All right,” was Harry’s quick response, for, in point of fact, 
nothing pleased him belter than to comply with Josephine’s 
slightest wish, so the “Gretchen” veered off again. 

“Oh ! can’t we go aboard cried Flutters, with a world of dis- 
appointment in his tone, for in imagination he had already scaled 
the gangway ladder that hung at her larboard side, and turned 
more than one somersault on the wide sweep of her upper deck. 

“ Why, no, child !” answered Hazel, who was fast assuming a 
most patronizing air toward her little protdgd ; “ no one would think 
of going aboard of her, would they. Cousin Harry 

“Why, why not.^” Flutters asked, half-impatiently, for Harry, 
giving his attention for the moment to the management of the 
boat, did not at once reply. 

“ Because,” he said, finally, “ there has been far too much sick- 
ness in that old hulk for any one to safely venture aboard of her ; 
she has been responsible for the lives of eleven thousand men. I 
doubt if the strongest and longest of north winds could ever blow 
her free from the fever that must be lurking in her rotten timbers.” 

That was a new phase of the matter to Flutters, and he subsided 
at once into thoughtful silence. 

“ I think this would be a good place to anchor,” suggested 
Harry, but waited a moment till Josephine had given her consent 
before letting the anchor run the length of its rope and bury itself 
in the mud bottom beneath them. 

As soon as the “ Gretchen” had settled into the position deter- 
mined for her by the tide, the little party of five ranged themselves 


OFF FOR THE PRISON-SHIP. 


57 


about the boat, so as to be as comfortable as possible, for there they 
meant to stay for the next hour, or two, or three, as the case might 
be. It had been for some time a thoroughly understood matter 
between H pel and Harry Avery, that whenever the day should 
come for this trip to the “Jersey,” they were to anchor their boat 
in full sight of her, and then and there he was to tell them the 
“ whole story” — from the day he volunteered till the day of his re- 
lease in the previous summer. 

Flpters, who had been made acquainted with the object of the 
expedition, waited, with a charming native sense of the “fitness of 
things,” until the others had chosen their places ; then he threw 
himself at Harry’s feet, in one of the graceful positions so natural 
to him, and which even Hans Van Wyck’s rough, homespun 
clothes did not altogether succeed in hiding. It was wonderful to 
look into Flutters’s upturned face — such complete satisfaction, such 
tranquil happiness shone out of it. Even in those exciting 
moments when every nerve and tissue was thrilling under Harry’s 
narration of the dark features of his prison life, a smile still seemed 
to be lurking in the corners of his expressive mouth. Yesterday, 
a lonely little tumbler in a dreary, tawdry circus company; to-day, 
one of a blessed circle of warm-hearted friends. Whatever fears 
others might have as to the disposal to be made of him. Flutters 
had none for himself Of course he was to be Hazel’s faithful little 
servant from that day forward, and it was almost worth while, he 
thought, to have “ darkey blood” in one’s veins for the sake of 
rendering such happy service. Farther than that he did not trouble 
himself, literally taking no thought for the morrow, nor for what 
he should put on when his present habiliments should have found 
their way back to their rightful owner. The “Gretchen's” little 
company made a pretty picture against the blue gray of the bay. 
and when at last there was no more arranging to be done, and all 
had repeatedly declared themselves “ perfectly comfortable,” there 
was a breathless, momentous little pause, as in the moment at a 
play between the significant and abrupt cessation of the orchestra 
and the rolling back of the curtain. '■'Please begin,” said Hazel, 
with a great sigh, as though the intense anticipation of that su- 
preme moment was quite too heavy for child-nature to endure, and 
Harry, looking sadly over to the old “Jersey,” commenced his story. 


CHAPTER VII. 


Harry’s story. 

I am to begin, Hazel, 
and at the very begin- 
ning, too, if I keep my 
promise. Well, this lit- 
tle chapter of my life 
began with a thought, 
as happens with most 
everything that is done 
in this world, and the 
thought was not one I 
had reason to be very 
proud of. I suppose all 
of you know, even Flut- 
ters, that since the com- 
mencement of the Revo- 
lution American vessels 
have been cruising about, hoping to capture English vessels. 

“ Now it chanced about two years ago that the ‘ Hannah,’ a very 
rich prize, was brought into New London. Some of the men who 
had taken part in her capture had sailed out of New London as 
poor as could be, and here they came sailing back again, with a 
prize in tow rich enough to fill all their empty pockets. So it was 
not strange, perhaps, that the capture of the ‘ Hannah ’ turned a 
good many young heads, nor that mine turned with the rest, and 
that, as soon as possible, 1 joined the crew of the ‘Venture,’ a 
privateer that was being rapidly fitted out for a cruise. At length 
everything was in readiness, and away we sailed with the high- 
est hopes, and with our pretty brig so crowded with musketry that 



HARRY'S STORY. 


59 


when in action she looked like a great flame of fire. Well, we were 
not long at sea before we gave chase to an English ship, in appear- 
ance as large as ours. We exchanged a few shots, then we ran 
alongside of her, and with one salute of all our fire put her to 
silence, and fortunately, too, without losing a single life. I can 
tell you I was a happy fellow. Hazel (Harry seemed to consider 
Hazel his chief listener), when it fell to my lot to be one of the 
crew who were ordered to man the prize and bring her into port ; 
happy I was, and as proud as a turkey-cock ; but that state of things 
did not last very long. It was our purpose not to attempt to make 
a landing until we should reach New Bedford; but before we had 
even cleared the shores of Long Island an English ship of war, the 
‘ Belisarius,’ of twenty-six guns, bore down upon us, and in less 
than an hour from the time she had sighted us, those of our number 
left on the ‘Venture,’ and those of us who had manned the English 
brig were all prisoners together and in irons in her hold.” 

“ Bless my stars ! were you really exclaimed Flutters, quite 
unprepared for this turn of affairs. 

“Yes, Flutters, sixty-five of us, and on our way to the old prison- 
ship, yonder.” 

“ How many did you say.^” asked Hazel. She had been think- 
ing she must teach Flutters not to say “ Bless my stars !” and things 
like that, and so her attention had wandered for a moment. 

“ Sixty-five, and in less than five months we were reduced to 
thirty-five.” 

“ Did thirty die ?” she asked, incredulously. 

“ Yes, thirty did die,” interrupted Starlight, setting his lips 
firmly, for he knew what he was talking about, “ and you old Eng- 
lish as good as murdered them.” 

“ Starlight, don’t you dare to speak like that to me,” was Hazel’s 
quick retort, while the blood flashed hotly into her face. Flutters 
gazed at her with astonishment. Perhaps, thought he, it will not 
always be an easy matter, after all, for even the most faithful of 
body-servants to please such a spirited little mistress. 

“Good for you. Hazel,” laughed Harry; “I would not stand 
such incivility either, if I were you ; but then I must tell you one 
thing, not all English hearts are as kind as yours and Josephine’s. 
If they were, the old ‘Jersey’ would not have so sorrowful a tale to 


6o 


A LOYAL LITTLE RED-COAT. 


tell.” Harry paused a moment. Starlight and Hazel were feeling a 
trifle uncomfortable. They could not resist the temptation to 
give each other a little home-thrust now and then on the score 
of their political differences. The result, as a rule, was a half- 
acknowledged admiration for each other s patriotism, and an extra 
touch of mutual consideration in word and manner for the time 
being. 

“Flutters,” said Hazel, solemnly, perhaps by way of disposing 
of the pause that seemed to reflect somewhat upon the conduct of 
herself and Starlight, “ Flutters, what are you f' Flutters looked 
down at his queer little Dutch outfit, and then up at Hazel, with a 
smile, which said as plainly as words, “ I give it up.” 

“ I mean,” continued Hazel, “ who do you side with Are you 
a stanch little Loyalist like me ? That is, do you think, as I think, 
that it is very wrong to take up arms against the King.^^” 

Flutters was lying flat in the bottom of the boat now, his dark 
little face propped between the palms of his hands, at a loss to 
know how to .answer. He was a trifle embarrassed by the direct- 
ness of Hazel’s question. 

“I would rather side with you. Miss Hazel,” he replied, at last, 
“a sight rather; but mulatto boys what has passed most of their 
time in a circus don’t know much ’bout those things. Fm going to 
hear Mr. Harry out, and then Fll make up my mind.” 

“Very well,” Hazel replied, with chilling dignity; “please go 
on,” she added, turning to Harry. 

Harry hesitated a moment, evidently trying to recall just where 
he had left off. 

“You were in irons on the ‘ Belisarius,’ ” suggested Josephine, 
whose thoughts, judging from the far-away look in her eyes, had 
been with the poor prisoners all the while rather than with what 
had been going on about her. 

“ Oh, yes, there we were ! and fortunately with no idea of the 
suffering in store for us. Early the next morning we were led on 
deck. The ‘ Belisarius’ had dropped anchor over yonder (pointing 
to the New York shore), and two boats were coming toward us, 
for she had signalled the ‘Jersey’ that she had prisoners to transfer. 
Oh, how our hearts sank within us as the little boats that were to 
carry us came nearer and nearer, and do you wonder, -children, that 



Harry’s Story, 


62 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT. 


we dreaded to board the old craft ? Did you ever see a drearier- 
looking object, with never so much as a spar or a mast to remind 
you of the real use of a vessel ? Even her lion figure-head had 
been taken away, leaving nothing but an unsightly old hulk, and 
yet I believe the Englishmen who were in charge of her thought 
the place, wretched as it was, too good for us. It seemed we were not 
even to be treated with the consideration due to prisoners of a war 
with a foreign nation. Having risen against the Mother Country, 
in their eyes we were simply traitors. Hopeless and despairing we 
were rowed over to the old prison, marched up the gangway ladder, 
ordered down the hatchway, and then, with the brutal exclamation, 

‘ There, rebels ! there is the cage for you,’ we found ourselves 
prisoners in the midst of a very wretched company.” 

The story was growing pretty painful, and likely to grow still 
more - so, provided Harry told them all, as he had promised. 
Besides, it was so terribly real, sitting there aboard of the “ Gretchen” 
with the old “Jersey” right before them. 

By way of affording a little relief from what she felt was yet to 
be told, Josephine asked: “What was that canvas-covered place 
there in the stern used for ?” 

“ Oh, that was a shelter put up for the guards on the quarter- 
deck. Just below that, and reaching from the bulkhead of the 
quarter-deck to the forecastle, was what they called the spar-deck, 
and it was there that we were allowed to take such exercise as we 
could. We used to walk in platoons facing the same way, and then 
all turn at once, so as to make the most of the little space. The 
gun-room, right under the quarter-deck, was where I was imprisoned, 
and it was a trifle more comfortable there, if you can use that word 
in connection with anything on the ‘Jersey,’ than the crowded place 
between decks where most of the prisoners were herded together. I 
had fortunately been chosen second mate on the English brig 
during the little while that we were masters of it, and to that lucky 
fact I owed my assignment to the gun-room with the other officers. 
But for that, I do not believe I should be here to-day to tell the 
story. I do not see how I could have endured any more and lived. 
As it was, you know, I was very ill.” 

“Yes, I know,” said Hazel, laying her hand affectionately over 
one of Harry’s and looking sympathetically into his face ; “ perhaps 


HAjRRY^S STOR Y. 63 

you had better not say very much about that part. Josephine and 
I cry very easy ; don’t we, Josephine T 

“Then please don’t, Harry,” urged Starlight; “I’d rather have 
a good thrashing any time than see a girl cry,” recalling one occa- 
sion in particular, when his own misconduct had moved Hazel to 
tears, and she had refused for the space of one long half hour to be 
in any-wise comforted. 

Flutters had not paid the least attention to this last interruption. 
He was thinking that, after all, the life of a friendless little circus 
performer, sorry and comfortless and forlorn as it was, might be less 
full of hardship than a prisoner’s. It was a very grand thing to 
have one’s freedom, and he had always had that — that is, he might 
at any time have run away if he chose. 

“What did they give you to eat, Mr. Harry he asked, by way 
of comparing bills of fare. 

“ Little that was fit to eat. Flutters; but I can tell you exactly 
if you would like to know,” and Harry drew from his pocket-book a 
scrap of folded paper. “ This was our list of supplies. I wrote it 
down the first week on board, and knew it quite by heart all too 
soon. I think I could repeat it now.” 

“ Suppose you try,” and Josephine taking the paper from 
his hand, Harry at once began to recite, with the satisfied air of 
a child that perfectly knows its lesson : 

“ On Stmday. — i pound of biscuit, i pound of pork, and pint 
of peas. 

On Monday. — i pound of biscuit, i pint of oatmeal, 2 ounces 
butter. 

“ 07 t Tuesday. — r pound of biscuit, 2 pounds beef. 

“ On Wednesday. — pounds of flour and 2 ounces suet. 

“ On Thursday. — Same as Sunday. 

“ On Friday. — Same as Monday. 

“ On Saturday. — Same as Tuesday. 

“ There, how is that T he asked, “ any mistakes ?” 

“Not one,” answered Josephine; “but really, Harry, is that all 
you received T 

“Why,” exclaimed Flutters, “seems to me that’s consid rable. 
Circus folks often don’t fare no better than that, and don’t get 
things so reg’lar, either.” 


64 


A LOYAL LLTTL.E RED-COAT. 


“ And yet, Flutters, that is only two-thirds of the allowance of 
an English seaman. However, we would have managed well enough 
to exist if the things had been good in themselves or decently 
cooked, but all the provisions were of so wretched a quality that 
many a poor ‘ Jersey ’ prisoner died from starvation through sheer 
inability to eat them.” 

“ Who cooked the things for you T asked Hazel. 

“ Whenever we could manage. Hazel, we cooked them ourselves. 
Do you see that big derrick on the starboard side ? Well, that was 
for taking in water, and we each had a scanty allowance of so much 
and no more each day. But, as a rule, we contrived to save a little of 
it with which to do our own cooking, because only the toughest men 
on board could so much as swallow the food prepared by the 
ship’s cook. Under the forecastle, there in the bow, hangs a great 
copper divided in the middle and holding two or three hogs- 
heads of water. In one side they cooked the meat, in the other 
the peas and oatmeal — sometimes, I believe, in salt water, but always 
in water so stale as to be absolutely unfit for use. So five or six of 
us would club together, each contributing our portion of water to 
the cooking supply, and then, by begging a little wood from 
the cook, now and then, and splitting it very carefully and economi- 
cally with our knives, we could manage to keep a fire going that 
would soon set our little pots boiling. It was a great day for 
us, I remember, when a tangle of driftwood came bumping against 
the ship’s side, and we were allowed to haul it on board for our 
fires.” 

“ It must have been very hard only now and then to have had 
a little butter for the biscuit,” remarked Hazel, to whom this par- 
ticular feature of Harry’s story appealed most pathetically, so very 
fond was her own little ladyship of the variety and sufficiency of a 
well-appointed table. 

“ But the butter was not forthcoming. Hazel; they gave us ran- 
cid sweet-oil instead, which refused to pass muster with our Yankee 
palates, so that we were able to bestow a double portion upon some 
poor Frenchmen, who were very grateful for it.” 

Flutters had changed his mind about the adequacy of the 
“Jersey’s” bill of fare, and was growing not a little indignant over 
Harry’s narration. 


HARI^Y^S STORY. 


65 


“Miss Hazel,” he said, while the color flashed through his dark 
skin, “ I am siding with the Yankees very fast.” 

“ I do not blame you very much. Flutters; I never heard of any- 
thing like it ;” which was quite a concession for so loyal a little 
Red-Coat as Hazel. 

“ But, Harry,” asked Josephine, who could scarcely bear to hear 
of such barbarous treatment at the hands of her own kinsmen, “do 
you think King George and the English nation, generally, knew 
about it T 

“No, I don’t, nor do I believe they know it now ; but they will 
some day. It was their business to know it, Josephine, and not to 
leave thousands of human beings at the mercy of a few merciless 
British seamen. Your own father would scarcely credit all I 
could tell him of our treatment, nor many another English officer ; 
but it was the clear duty of some of them to have looked into the 
matter.” 

“ You don’t mean it was my papa’s duty, do you T Hazel asked, 
bristling up a little ; she was not going to allow even “ Cousin 
Harry” to utter a word that would seem to reflect upon her father 
even for a moment. 

“ No, of course, I don’t mean anything of the kind. If I 
thought Captain Boniface in any way responsible for those horrors, 
do you think I could be on such friendly terms with him.? No, 
Plazel, your father is a true, brave man, and no one knows better 
than I how much he has given up in King George’s service. It 
was not his duty to inspect the prison-ships. Furnishing supplies 
for the English troops called for every moment of his thought and 
time, and taxed all his strength and energy ; but there are some 
men — men whom your father knows — whose names we need not 
mention, who are very culpable in the matter, if you know what 
that means .?” 

“ I suppose it means very much to blame,” sighed Hazel.^^ 

“ Oh, I wish you would just go on telling about things!” urged 
Flutters, beseechingly, for to him the story itself was far more in- 
teresting than any side remarks. 

Harry remained silent a moment. Since Josephine and Hazel 
“ cried very easy,” he had need to be careful just where he began 
again. “ I must not forget to tell you,” he said, “ something about 


66 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT, 


‘Dame Grant/ as we called her, for her visits to the old ‘Jersey’ 
constituted almost our greatest blessing. She was a fat old woman, 
who dealt in sugar and tea, pipes and combs, needles and pins, and 
a few other of the necessaries of life. Every day or two her little 
boat would push out from the Brooklyn shore, and, rowed by two 
boys, over she would come to the ship’s side. Those of us who 
were fortunate enough to have any money were then allowed to go 
to the foot of the ladder and make some little purchases, obtaining 
everything — so she always assured us — ‘at cost price.’ But some- 
times I was almost sorry that I had a cent to spend. It was so 
terrible to see the longing in the faces of the poor fellows who had 
no money. I will say this much in our favor, however ; I think 
there was hardly a man among us who did not share with some 
one else fully half of whatever he had bought. But suddenly the 
visits came to an end. One morning the little boat put out from 
the shore as usual, but with no one in it save one of the boys who 
used to row it, and he brought us the sad news that the old ‘ Dame’ 
had caught the fever from the hulk of the ‘Jersey’ and died. After 
that no one else was ever willing to run the risk of contagion for 
the sake of the profits of our little purchases. But one of the 
happiest experiences that ever came to us in those long, dreary 
days, was to be allowed to become a member of the ‘Working 
Party.’ It was composed of twenty men, and all the prisoners who 
had any strength left were always eager to join it. It was the duty 
of these men to wash down the upper deck and gangway, to spread 
the awning, and to hoist wood, water, and other supplies on board, 
from the boats that came alongside. Then, in the case of any 
deaths — and there were often three or four during a single night — 
some of the party would be assigned the duty of burial, and sent to 
the shore for that purpose, but always closely watched by two or 
three guards. Strange as it may seem, this sad duty was considered 
the most desirable of all. It meant setting one’s foot on dear old 
Mother Earth again, for, at least, a little while, and even the mourn- 
ful work in hand could not quite offset that pleasure. Only once 
was I so fortunate as to be chosen, and so keen was my delight in 
treading the ground again, that I actually took off my shoes for 
the sake of feeling the sand fall away from my feet as we pushed 
along with our sad burden. Now and then it would happen that. 


JIARRY^S STORY. 


67 


notwithstanding the watchfulness of the guards, a prisoner would 
succeed in making his escape when sent ashore with one of these 
interment parties. Near the spot where most of the ‘Jersey’s’ 
prisoners were buried was a comfortable homestead belonging to 
a miller. The men used to call it the ‘ Old Dutchman’s,’ and 
always looked toward it with a sort of veneration as they passed, 
particularly as they knew that the miller’s daughter was deeply in- 
terested in us. She kept account of all the poor fellows who were 
brought to the shore to be buried, and I think many of us cherished 
a vain sort of hope that deliverance might possibly come through 
her some day.” 

“That was strange about caring to feel the sand against your 
feet,” remarked Starlight ; “ that is the last sort of thing you’d think 
a fellow would ever really care for.” 

“ Very likely ; but if you ever spend even a month on shipboard 
you’ll find yourself longing for some of the things that you never so 
much as gave a thought to while you had them. Why, when the 
men returned to the ‘Jersey’ from the shore they would take 
back with them as much common turf as they could carry, and the 
little fragments would be greedily sought for and inhaled with more 
pleasure than if they had had the fragrance of a rose.” 

“ Did they pay you in any way for the work ?” asked Flutters, 
still anxious to compare experiences. 

“ Not in money, of course. Flutters, but we had the privilege of 
going on deck early in the morning, and were allowed to stay till 
sunset. All the other prisoners were ordered down to the foul air 
between decks two hours earlier, there to stay, come what would, for 
ten wretched hours, with the iron gratings of the hatchways firmly 
fastening them in. Then we were granted a full allowance of pro- 
visions, such as they were.” 

“Tell about when all the ‘Venture’s’ crew were at last ex- 
changed excepting you and Tom Burnham,” suggested Starlight, in 
a pause that offered. 

“ No, don’t, please,” Josephine exclaimed; “we all know about 
that, and it was so very dreadful. Besides, it’s all right now.” 

“What,” said Flutters, eagerly, sitting bolt upright — “what’s 
that ? I don’t know about it.” 

“ Fll tell you,” Hazel whispered, motioning him closer to her; 


68 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT. 


meanwhile Harry pointed out different parts of the ship in answer 
to certain questions of Josephine’s. 

“You see,” explained Hazel in a melodramatic whisper, “that 
Cousin Harry was taken sick one day very suddenly, and then he 
had the fever so badly that he was carried over to Blackwell’s Island 
to die. But he didn’t die.” 

“ Didn’t he, really T asked Flutters, mischievously. 

“ I wouldn’t joke about a thing like this. Flutters. No, he 
didn’t die ; hut while he was getting well very slowly a cartel — that’s 
a kind of boat — was sent from New London, with some English 
prisoners on board, to exchange for the crew of the ‘ Venture;’ but 
there were not quite as many English prisoners as were needed for 
an exchange, so they decided they would have to leave Cousin 
Harry and a friend of his, Tom Burnham, who were sick over on 
the island, behind, and as soon afterward as those two poor fellows 
were well enough, back they had to go again to that dreadful old 
‘ Jersey.’ Wasn’t that pretty hard T 

“ Gosh, yes,” exclaimed inelegant little Flutters, and Hazel ex- 
cused the word because the occasion seemed to demand something 
strong. 

“ And there they stayed. Flutters, one whole year longer, till 
last August, when the English had to let all their prisoners go free ; 
but understand. Flutters, it was just those few bad men in charge 
of the ‘Jersey’ who were so cruel. In other places we did not 
treat our prisoners badly at all. Besides, it was very wicked indeed 
to take arms against the King, though, of course, men like Cousin 
Harry thought they were doing right.” Hazel, as usual, wound up 
with a defence of her own loyalist principles. 

And so the story of Harry’s hard prison life was all told, or, 
rather, as much of it as was suited to his audience or was not too 
heartrending, and at once the little party agreed to weigh anchor 
and sail quite out of sight of the dreary old ship before opening the 
well-filled luncheon baskets stowed away in the “Gretchen’s” 
narrow hold. 

And then, of course, every one kept on the lookout for the best 
point to come to anchor again; but Flutters was the first to 
discover a most attractive spot on the New York side of the 
river, where some fine old trees grew close to its edge, and already 


HARRY^S STORY. 


69 


cast their shadows far enough out on the water to shade the 
“Gretchen” from bow to stern. Thither they sailed, quickly 
dropped anchor, and soon sitting down to cold tongue and biscuits, 
peach jam and sponge cake, endeavored to banish all thoughts of 
prisoners and prison-ships. It was not hard work, for Flutters was 
funny, and Starlight and Hazel actually silly. Indeed, all of them 
felt a sort of reaction from the gloomy, depressing thoughts of the 
last hour, and, to my thinking, a little silliness was perfectly allow- 
able. After a most leisurely luncheon. Hazel and Starlight moved to 
the stern of the boat. There was one important matter they had 
need to discuss confidentially — the return of Hans’s clothes. Hazel 
had not forgotten her promise to surely bring them back to Mrs. 
Van Wyck the next day ; and now the next day had come, and 
with no better prospect of any other equipment for Flutters. En- 
tirely unconcerned. Flutters, growing drowsy in the noontide still- 
ness of the river, had stretched his lithe little body along one of the 
boat cushions and fallen asleep. Josephine, after stowing away the 
emptied baskets, had seated herself again with her back against the 
mast. Harry had moved to a seat by her side, and they were talking 
together of what filled both their hearts — their anxiety for Captain 
Boniface; and Harry was doing his best to calm Josephine’s fears. 
He spoke most cheerily and hopefully, for he honestly did not 
believe the antagonism against her father would amount to so very 
much; and watching her lovely face brighten at his encouraging 
words, no doubt thought how very beautiful she was. You would 
have thought so too could you have seen her, with her wide- 
brimmed hat pushed far back on her head, and the airiest of 
little breezes playing with the pretty light hair that lay in curling 
wisps about her forehead. Starlight happened to glance toward 
Josephine just as he and Hazel had settled the matter they had in 
hand, and seemed more impressed with her beauty, as she sat there, 
than ever before. 

“ You don’t often find a girl like your sister Josephine,” he said ; 
“ she’s lovely herself, and she’s lovely to look at. Those two things 
don’t generally go together — in girls.” 

“ What do you mean 7 ' asked Hazel, bristling a little, as usual. 

“ I mean that most lovely girls know that they’re lovely, and that 
spoils it. The good-natured girls are most always homely.” 


70 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT. 


“ Am I ?” 

“No, of course, you’re not homely. Hazel, but then you’re not” 
— a long pause — “so very good-natured either;” Starlight’s love of 
mischief having gotten the better of his discretion. 

Hazel gave him one look of indignant condemnation. Then, 
without a word, she moved away, took her seat at Josephine’s feet, 
and for the remainder of the afternoon treated Starlight with all the 
studied coolness offended dignity could muster. 

About four o’clock the “ Gretchen” again weighed anchor and 
steered out into the river, homeward bound. It had been arranged 
that she should touch at the foot of Beekman Street, and that Starlight 
should leave them there, so as to stop at Mrs. Van Wyck’s and see 
what could be done about Flutters’s clothes, or rather Hans’s; and 
from there he would no doubt be able to beg a ride out to the 
Bonifaces’. “Good-bye, Hazel,” he called back, as he bounded on to 
the little wharf. Hazel vouchsafed no answer. Josephine wondered 
what was up, and so did Harry, but were wise enough not to ask 
any questions. Flutters was not so wise. “ Miss Hazel, did you 
hear Starlight call good-bye.?” he queried. 

“ I’m not deaf, Flutters.” 

“Then why didn’t you answer.?” with innocent directness. 

“ I had my own good reasons. And, Flutters, must not ever 
ask me why I do things.” 

“ All right. Miss Hazel,” Flutters answered cheerily, for her 
word was law to him; but Josephine and Harry found it difficult to 
conceal a smile. 

It proved rather a tedious sail homeward, for the wind that had 
blown them so finely down river in the morning had not been so 
accommodating as to change its direction, and only by dint of much 
“tacking” was any headway to be made. At last, however, the 
Boniface homestead came in sight, and in the stillness of the twi- 
light the “Gretchen” was safely moored to her own little dock. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


A CALL ON COLONEL HAMILTON. 



OOD-BYE, Hazel,” “Good-bye, Starlight,” 
“Good-bye, Josephine,” “Good-bye, 
Cousin Harry,” “ Good-bye, Flutters.” 
Quite a medley of good-byes, to be sure^ 
but no more than were needed, for Harry 
and Starlight, once more aboard of the 
“ Gretchen,” were fast gliding out on 
to the river, and Josephine and Hazel 
and Flutters were being left behind on 
the wharf. The little prison-ship party 
had had their supper, and now Harry 
and Starlight were off for Paulus Hook ; 
it was high time, too, that they were, 
since they had already been absent 
a day longer than Harry had planned, 
and Aunt Frances would naturally 
begin to feel worried. Little Flutters 
cut a queer figure as he stood there 
on the floating dock in the moonlight. 
Hans Van Wyck’s clothes, done up 
in a snug bundle, were already on 
their way back to their lawful owner, 
so that he had need to resort once 
more to the spangles and tinsel of 
his circus costume. By way of mak- 
ing up for insufficient clothing, Mrs. 
Boniface had thrown a shawl about 
him, one end of which Flutters allowed to trail behind, pinning the 


72 


A LOYAL LITTLE RED-COAT. 


Other close about his throat, with one corner thrown over his left 
shoulder. 

“We must do something about some clothes for you, Flutters, 
right away,” Hazel remarked, as they turned to walk up from the 
wharf, when, amid the darkening shadows of the river, the “Gre- 
tchen’s” sail was no longer visible. “Starlight and I hoped Mrs. 
Van Wyck would offer to give us that suit of Hans’s to keep when 
he stopped to see her this afternoon and told her about you, but she 
did not propose anything of the kind. She only said ‘ it was very 
inconvenient for Hans not to have them, and she hoped we’d man- 
age to get them back to-night’ ” 

“ And you have managed, haven’t you. Miss Hazel T Flutters 
answered, as if the managing were a matter to be proud of ; and, 
mimicking a sort of stage stride such as he had often witnessed in 
tragical circus pantomimes, he apparently bestowed far more atten- 
tion on the sweep of his majestic train than on what Hazel was 
saying. 

“Yes, of course, I sent them back; what else could I do.f^” — this 
last rather impatiently, because of Flutters’s exasperating unconcern 
— “ but how are you going to manage without them is what Fd like 
to know.” 

Flutters gave Hazel a comical little look. “With tights and 
shawls, I s’pose, Miss Hazel, unless the Captain felt like as he could 
buy some for me.” 

“ No,” said Hazel decidedly ; “ I am not going to bother father 
^bout things like that, specially now when he’s so worried and his 
life’s in danger.” This remark brought Flutters to a stand. “ Is 
the Captain’s life in danger, really. Miss Hazel T 

“Yes, it is. Josephine said he received a very angry letter the 
other night from some old friends of his. They as much as told 
him that he must go away, and that his life wasn’t safe here ; and lots 
of people are going, Flutters ; people who, like father, have sided 
with King George.” 

“ Where are they going, Miss Hazel T 

“ To England, most of them.” 

“ And will the Captain go ?” 

“No, Josephine thinks not. You see he built this house. Flut- 
ters, and he loves it, and he loves this country, too. Josephine says 


A CALL ON COLONEL HAMLLTON. 


73 


she believes he’ll just stay, and try and live the angry feeling 
down.” 

“Miss Hazel,” said Flutters, stopping to gather the trailing 
shawl over one arm, for he was ready now to give his whole mind 
to the matter in hand, “ it’s a very puzzling thing ’bout me. When 
Mr. Harry was telling those sad things of the prison-ship, I thought 
I was a Whig, and now when you are talking ’bout the Captain, it 
seems as though I was a — a what do you call it 

“A Loyalist, Flutters.^” 

“Yes, a Loyalist; but I reckon folks what has friends on both 
sides, had better not be anything particular.” 

“ Perhaps that would be best,” Hazel replied, smiling in spite of 
herself. 

“ Miss Hazel,” Flutters said, after a little pause, stopping and 
looking round him somewhat cautiously, as though he feared his 
question might be overheard, “ did Starlight hear of any ’quiries for 
me, when he was in the city this afternoon T 

Hazel nodded “Yes” in a most mysterious manner. 

“ There’s no danger of their ’quiring round here, do you think ?” 
and Hazel saw the inv’^oluntary little tremble shoot through Flutters’s 
frame. 

“ No, indeed, Flutters, and we wouldn’t give you up if they did. 
Mrs. Van Wyck told Starlight that a forlorn old man, who belong- 
ed to the circus, stopped at her gate and asked if she’d seen any- 
thing of a little mulatto boy what had deserted from the troupe, or 
knowed anything about him, and Mrs. Van Wyck said, ‘Lor’, no !’ 
never dreaming that her very own little Hans’s clothes were on that 
same little boy that very moment.” 

“ That must have been good old Bobbin,” answered Flutters, 
fairly chuckling over the thought of the entire success of his escape. 

“ Miss Hazel,” he added, after a moment’s thoughtful meditation, 
“ Fve been thinking how I might earn the money for my clothes by 
doing a little tumbling for folks round here, only Fm so awfully 
afraid of being heard of by the circus people.” 

The suggestion instantly flashed a new scheme through Hazel’s 
mind. 

“ Flutters,” she said, very slowly and seriously, “ I’ve — thought — 
of — something. Yes, it’s the very thing. I’m going to town to- 


74 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT, 


morrow, to see Colonel Hamilton about an important matter, and 
I’ll make all the ’rangements.” 

“’Rangements ’bout the clothes. Miss Hazel ?” 

“Yes, ’rangements ’bout everything; but, hush ! ’cause nobody 
else must know about it.” They had reached the porch where Mrs. 
Boniface was sitting, and Josephine was close behind them, which 
was the occasion for Hazel’s “ Hush and so little Flutters tumbled 
into bed half an hour later, still in ignorance as to what the scheme 
of his “ little Mistress” might be, but with perfect confidence in 
her ability to make any arrangements under the sun. 

Joe Ainsworth found his little friend waiting in the sunshine the 
next morning, and, almost without intimation from him, the leaders 
came to a standstill, and Hazel mounted to her seat beside him. 
“ Business in town T ventured Joe. 

“ Colonel Hamilton’s, please,” all intent on getting comfortably 
seated. 

“Oh!” exclaimed Joe, with elevated eyebrows, “haven’t fixed 
that matter up yet, eh T 

“ Not yet. I haven’t had time to see to it until to-day.” 

“ Haven’t had time,” said Joe, with a significant smile. 

“ No, I haven’t, really. Yesterday I had to go on a sailing party 
and the day before to the circus.” 

“My lands. Miss Hazel! I guess if you had to drive this 
Albany coach every day of your life, week in and week out, and 
was ever able to take so much as a day off for a circus or a sailing 
party, you would call that having lots of time. I would, I can tell 
ye.” 

“ Well, then, perhaps it was because I couldn’t do both things, 
Joe, so I chose the sailing party and the circus.” 

“ I don’t blame you. Miss Hazel. Besides, there can’t be any- 
thing very pleasant for such a loyal little Red-Coat as you to look 
forward to, in calling on our American Colonel.” 

“ I’m not afraid of any American Colonel,” with the air of a 
grand duchess. 

“ No, of course not. Miss Hazel, but I’d have a care to that little 
tongue of yours.” 

Hazel did not answer. She would not have allowed man}^ 


A CALL ON COLONEL HAMILTON. 


75 


people to offer that unsolicited advice without some sort of a rejoin- 
der, but she had always a most kindly side toward Joe Ainsworth, 
not entirely accounted for, either, by the fact of the free rides. 

For some reason or other the coach horses kept up a good 
pace that morning, and it was not long before they came to a 
halt at Hazel’s destination. 

Colonel Hamilton’s law office was in just such another wide- 
porched double house as the Starlight homestead ; and, like it, 
had been vacated by its rightful owner during the progress of the 
war, and so had shared the similar fate of being immediately 
claimed by the English. They were most comfortable-looking 
dwellings, those old colonial homesteads, cheery and clean without, 
in their buff coats of paint lined off with generous bands of white, 
and most hospitable within, with their wide halls running from front 
to back straight through them. It seemed a shame that such 
a homelike place should ever be converted into a mere bevy 
of offices, but, after all, that is but one of many desecrations that 
follow closely in the train of wretched war. The very sight of the 
house, and the evident misuse to which it had been put, stirred 
Hazel’s indignation. She did not know who had lived there, 

but she felt very sorry for them all the same. 

It chanced to be her good fortune to find Colonel Alexander 
Hamilton alone in his office, something that did not often 
happen in the experience of that great man, and it was also 

perhaps her good fortune to be altogether unconscious of how 
truly great he was, else she might not h^ve marched so boldly 
into his presence and told her story in such a frank and fearless 

manner. Yet, who knows, there are big and little women the 

world over, who will stop at nothing, and know neither fear nor 
shrinking where a friend’s interests are concerned, especially 
such a brave, true friend as Starlight had always proved himself 
to be. 

Colonel Hamilton allowed Hazel to make her statement without 
interruption, save to ask some lawyer-like question now and then, 
when, in her childish eagerness, she had failed to put the facts quite 
clearly; but, notwithstanding her eagerness and the importance 
of her errand, she took time to note that he was “ a lovely-looking 
gentleman,” and to draw a little sigh of regret that so fine a 


76 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED. CO AT, 


man should not have been a Tory like herself. When at last 
she had cleared her mind of all she had to say, she folded her 
little hands together in her lap, and scanning his handsome face 
closely, waited for his answer. 

But Colonel Hamilton did not answer. With his elbows 
resting on the arms of his office chair he sat for a few seconds 
gazing down at his hands, the fingers of which, with thumb pressing 
thumb, were clasped in meditative fashion before him. Hazel 
gazed at them too. She thought they were very nice hands, and 
noticed how fine were the linen frills falling over them from 
the circle of the tight-fitting, broadcloth sleeve. She was not 
at all concerned that he did not hasten to reply. She had heard 
that lawyers gave a great deal of thought to “things,’^ and she 
would not hurry him. Meanwhile she sought the arms of the 
chair in which she was sitting as a support for her own elbows, 
and endeavored to lock her own little hands together in imitation 
of his — so will the feminine mind occupy itself with veriest trifles 
even on the verge of most decisive transactions. But the chair- 
arms were too wide apart and the child-arms too short by far 
to successfully accomplish the imitation. Colonel Hamilton noted 
the attempt and smiled. “ My little friend,” he said at last, “ Tm 
thinking I am the very last man you should have come to about 
all this. How did you happen to appeal to me T 

“ Because, sir (Hazel grew a little embarrassed) — because sir, as 
I told Joe Ainsworth, who drives the Albany coach, you were 
the gentleman who talked the court into deciding the case against 
Miss Avery and in favor of Captain Wadsworth.” 

“ And how did you learn that ?” 

“ Oh, I have heard my father talk about it ; I am his little 
daughter Hazel.” 

“ Naturally, but who may your father be T 

“ Captain Hugh Boniface, of his Majesty’s service,” with no little 
dignity. 

“ Indeed !” exclaimed the Colonel, with surprise, “ and what did 
your father say ?” 

“ He did not think you were right about it. Colonel Hamilton, 
but he said you were smart enough and handsome enough to make 
a jury believe anything you wanted to.” Hazel did not know why 


A CALL ON COLONEL HAMILTON. 


77 


the Colonel walked over to the window and looked out for a 
moment, but one might surmise that it was simply to conceal a 
very broad smile. 

“That is rather doubtful praise, Miss Hazel,” he said, coming 
back again, “ but I can tell you one thing, I certainly would not try 
to make a jury believe anything that I did not believe myself.” 

“ No, of course not,” Hazel answered warmly, “only I thought 
you could not have understood about things. That is the reason I 
have come to ask you to change your mind.” 

“ But, unfortunately, lawyers’ minds when once made up cannot 
be changed very easily, and I am sorry for that, for there is nothing 
I would rather do than be of service to you and your little friend 
with the pretty name — what do you call him 1 Starlight ? You see, 
the bother is, I honestly think the English have a right to dispose 
of Miss Avery’s house, for they did not take it from her nor compel 
her to leave it. She left it of her own accord, now more than two years 
ago, and entirely unprotected. Now I do not see why she should 
expect to come back to it and turn out its present occupant just 
when she chances to see fit, and the court agrees with me in this.” 

“ But doesn’t it seem too bad for a lot of great, strong men to 
side against a lovely lady like Miss Frances Avery?” and Hazel 
gave a very deep sigh. 

“Yes, in one way it does. Miss Hazel,” said Colonel Flamilton 
kindly, “and the great strong men felt very sorry for her. Un- 
fortunately hers proved to be a sort of test case. There are scores 
of other people who want to come back and turn people out of the 
homes where they have been living, some of them for the last six 
or seven years — indeed ever since New York fell into the hands of 
the British, and now the court has decided that they ought not to 
be allowed to come, and that under these circumstances, ‘ possession 
is not only nine points of the law, ’ but ten.” 

“ I do not quite understand what you mean about the points 
of the law,” said Hazel, frankly ; “ but I do not think about it 
as you do at all,” and, in fact, there were many people in those 
days, and many, too, in these, who could make Hazel’s words their 
own, never having been able to comprehend how it was that the 
great lawyer took the stand he did. 

“ Besides, it is queer,” Hazel added, after a moment’s cogitation. 


78 


A LOYAL LLTTLE LEE-COAT. 


^‘that such a Whig as you are, Colonel Hamilton, should have 
sided with the Tories.” 

“ Not a whit more queer, it strikes me,” laughed the Colonel, 
“ than that a stanch little Loyalist like yourself should be pleading 
so warmly for the Whigs.” 

“ But if your best friend was a Whig and you felt sorry for him ?” 
pleaded Hazel, in extenuation. 

“Well to be sure, that does put matters in a different light; 
but truly, I do not see what you are going to be able to do about it. 
If Miss Avery can fix matters up with Captain Wadsworth, all well 
and good, and — ” 

“No, she can never do that,” interrupted Hazel, decidedly. “ I 
have seen Captain Wadsworth myself. He looks like a kind man, 
but he isn’t. He told me to come to you about it ; but it seems 
there’s no use going to anybody, and I guess Miss Avery and 
Starlight will just have to live and die over at Paulus Hook, 
and never have a home of their own again — never!” 

It must be confessed that Hazel’s efforts in behalf of the Star- 
light homestead had apparently met with no success whatever. 
But she had done what she could, a// she could, indeed, and there 
was some comfort in that, at least so she thought, as she walked 
slowly away from Colonel Hamilton’s office. She paused in a 
meditative way as she reached the gate. “ Poor little girl,” thought 
the Colonel, who sat watching her from his office window, “ I fancy 
she had an idea I could go right up to Captain Wadsworth’s and 
turn them all out if I wished to, and half believed I would do it. 
As it is, I will speak to the Captain. Perhaps he might be able to 
make some sort of a compromise with Miss Avery.” 

So after all Hazel had at least succeeded in making a friend of 
the Colonel, and of Captain Wadsworth, too, for that matter, and it 
was not altogether improbable that something might result from 
this state of affairs, though she herself little dreamed it. But Hazel 
had had a double purpose in coming into the city that morning, and 
did not stand there at the Colonel’s gate because, as the Colonel 
thought, she was the most sorrowful and hopeless of little suppliants, 
but because she was trying to decide just what she had better 
do next. 


A CALL ON COLONEL HAMLLTON. 


79 



“ Better do next T was the question that always confronted that 
restless and active little woman whenever the completion of any 
one plan left her free to launch upon another. If the little plan had 
utterly failed, that did not matter. It was her life to be busy about 
something, though the 
something might be of 
no more importance 
than the making of a 
dolFs dress or the mend- 
ing of a toy teacup. But 
now the something to 
be done was important, 
and having made up her 
mind what to do, she 
suddenly started off at 
a brisk little pace that 
would have surprised 
the sympathetic Colonel 
could he have seen be- 
hind the boxwood hedge 
that grew close up to 
the gate on either side. 

So great indeed was the 
change in her bearing, 
he' might with reason 
have suspected her of a 
little “ old soldiering” 
while in his office. 

Hazel’s destination 
was the Starlight home- 
stead, and the man she 
wanted to see was Ser- 
geant Bellows. She 
found him seated alone 

on a bench under a tree in the front garden, and this suited 
her exactly, for her interview had need to be a private one. 
The old Sergeant was cleaning some sword-handles, but was 
glad enough to have his work interrupted by the unexpected 


‘Do YOU REMEMBER?’' 


8o 


A LOYAL LITTLE RED-COAT 


arrival of his little friend, and made room for her on the bench 
beside him. 

“ Do you remember.?” Hazel at once began, without waiting to 
command sufficient breath, “ that the last time — I was here — you 
asked — if there was anything — an old sergeant could do for me ?” 

“ Yes, I remember, Miss Hazel.” 

“ And do you think the other men meant what they said when 
they asked if there was anything they could do for me 

“ Yes, ril wager they did.” 

“ Well, now, there is something. Sergeant Bellows, a real impor- 
tant something, and this is it,” and straightway Hazel’s voice 
subsided into such a confidential whisper, that even the Sergeant 
lost a word now and then, but he smiled and nodded assent all the 
while, to Hazel’s great delight. 

As for us, it is needless to bother our heads with all she told 
him, particularly as we shall see what came of it in the very next 
chapter. 


CHAPTER IX. 


FLUTTERS HAS A BENEFIT. 



HE warrn and hazy Sep- 
tember days were over. 
The first of October had 
come in by the calendar, 
but although its sun had 
not yet peeped over the 
horizon, there were un- 
mistakable signs in the 
east which heralded its 
coming. As for Hazel, 
she was up “with the 
lark,” as the saying goes, 
and with good reason, 
too, for never did any 
mere little * feathered 
songstress have as much 
in hand as had she for 
that first day of Octo- 
ber, and it all depend- 
ed upon the weather. 
What wonder, then, with so much on her mind, that the first 
ray of daylight succeeded in shimmering in beneath the long 
lashes of her eyes, first setting their lids a-tremble and then pry- 
ing them open, so that their little owner soon found herself wide- 
awake, and that the eventful day had dawned. But what sort of a 
day was it going to be, that was the all-important question. Hazel 
threw open the shutters of her window. The vine that crept along 
its sill was dripping wet — could it be ifaining ? She stretched out a 


82 


A LOYAL LITTLE RED-COAT, 


little brown hand that was all of a tremble with excitement, to test 
if rain were really falling. No, not a drop. It was dew on the 
vines, of course ; how foolish not to have thought of that ! But 
what made the sky so gray 1 Was it cloudy Then she tripped 
over to the clock. Why, so early as that ! Then perhaps the sun 
was not up yet. No, come to look again, of course it wasn’t, it was 
just daylight. 

Having reached this conclusion. Hazel, wisely slipping into a 
flannel wrapper and a pair of bedroom slippers, sat down to wait 
the rising of that very lazy sun, and soon he came. She watched 
till he was full above the horizon, then assuring herself that there 
were no threatening clouds anywhere, crept back into bed, wrapper, 
slippers, and all, with a mind quite at ease, and in just the sort of a 
mood for the most refreshing of little morning naps. 

One, two, one, two. Company F was marking time pre- 
paratory to marching on again, and Sergeant Bellows was in 
command. 

It was two o’clock now, and the sun, for whose dawning Hazel 
had watched so eagerly, was well on his journey, and shining down 
on the burnished flint-locks and scarlet coats of Company F, coats 
which looked bravely in the morning sunlight, notwithstanding 
many a stain and mark of active service. But not for any skirmish- 
ing with their enemies were those English soldiers under marching 
orders, for never again were they to wage battle with the colonists 
on American soil. It was now nearly two years since the great 
battle of Yorktown, when the British soldiers had laid down 
their arms, and Lord Cornwallis’s sword had been surrendered 
to General Washington, and it would not be long before the whole 
army, under command of Sir Guy Carleton, would go sailing home- 
ward down the harbor, and not a British roll-call, nor a soldier 
answering to it, would be heard anywhere in the land. But, some- 
how or other, notwithstanding all this. Company F, of His 
Majesty’s service, did not look very crestfallen, as they stood there 
marking time, until a great overhanging load of hay should leave 
the road clear ahead of them. They had had plenty of time to get 
used to the thought of not having beaten the Yankees; in fact, 
some of them went so far as to openly express their honest admira- 
tion for the plucky, desperate fashion in which those some poorly- 


FLUTTERS HAS A BENEFIT. 


83 


equipped Yankees had fought, and did not begrudge them their 
hard-earned victory. Then in seven weeks more they were to turn 
their faces toward home and England ; toward England, which some 
of them had not seen for eight long years ; toward home, where 
little children had outgrown their childhood, where dear wife faces had 
grown worn with waiting, and where white-haired mothers, wearied 
with watching, had perhaps been laid at rest in the little village 
churchyards. But, come weal or woe, they were soon going home ; 
you could see their faces daily grow brighter with the thought, and 
happening this morning to have a most novel entertainment in 
prospect, what wonder that almost every one wore an amused smile, 
and that every eye twinkled merrily. The clumsy hay-load slowly 
moved out of the way, and then came the order, “ For ard, march r 
from Sergeant Bellows, and off they went, with even swing up 
Broadway, turning off at the Albany coach road, and then on out 
into the country. “ Halt !” called Sergeant Bellows at last, and 
Company F halted right in front of Captain Boniface’s cottage. It 
could not have been that they were not expected, for Hazel, with 
beaming smile, stood holding the gate wide open, and the men filed 
in and took their seats in chairs which had evidently been placed in 
rows in the garden for them. The chairs fronted the porch, and 
were grouped in semicircular shape about the wide steps leading up 
to it, at the top of which a curtain (for which two blanket shawls 
had been made to do duty) hung suspended, the cord that held it 
being fastened to the fluted column at either end. That the shawls 
were of widely differing plaids, and at great variance in the matter 
of color, only added to the generally fantastic effect. Without 
doubt there was going to be some sort of a performance, and it was 
easy now to guess that Hazel’s “ ’rangements” had been in the line of 
preparation for it, and easy now to understand why her little lady- 
ship had been up with the lark, to ascertain, if possible, what sort of 
a day it was going to be. Somehow or other I should not in the 
least wonder if the “Old Man of the Weather” loves to have a little 
child place implicit trust in him now and then ; surely he does, if he 
is at all like some of the rest of us whom you little folks call old. 
At any rate the weather not only favored Hazel’s project, but seemed 
just to give itself up to making everything comfortable for every- 
body. The sun saw to it that the old house cast a broad square 


84 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT, 


shadow in front of it that was more than large enough to cover the 
space where the men were seated, and the wind saw to it that a suf- 
ficiently strong little breeze was blowing to temper the early after- 
noon sunshine, and everything conspired to make it a perfect 
October day, a sort of good example, as it were, for the thirty other 
October days that were to follow it. 

At last it was time for that mysterious many-colored curtain to 
be drawn aside, and certain vigorous jerkings of the shawls showed 
that an attempt was being made in that direction. What did it 
matter to Company F if it did not work with all the smoothness to 
be desired, since it finally disclosed to them as fair a little specimen 
of humanity as the eyes of most of them had ever rested upon. In 
the centre of the stage, or rather of that portion of the porch which 
had been divided off for it, sat Hazel’s little sister in an old- 
fashioned high-back chair, her pretty slippered feet reaching but a 
little way over its edge, and her little dimpled hands folded in her lap 
in most complacent fashion. She wore a short-waisted, quaint little 
white dress, barely short enough to show the prettily slippered feet. 

Not at all dismayed was little Kate at the sight of so many soldiers 
seated there in such formal array before her. What was every 
beautiful Red Coat but another embodiment of her own dear papa ; 
and not in the least alarmed was she by the loud applause which 
the mere sight of her elicited from admiring Company F. She 
turned her pretty head on one side and then on the other, her little 
face wreathed in smiles, and seeming to say in silent baby-fashion, 
“Thank you, gentlemen.” Not that she could not talk. No, in- 
deed, do not think that for a moment ; her baby tongue could move 
with all the insistent chatter of a little English sparrow ; but the 
right time had not come yet. As soon as the applause had some- 
what abated. Hazel herself appeared on the scene, arrayed in a 
jaunty little riding-habit, and with cheeks aglow with excitement, 
looking prettier, perhaps, than ever before in her life. As was to 
be expected, her appearance was the cause for renewed applause ; 
but finally all was quiet, and she stepped forward to deliver a little 
speech which had been carefully thought over. She had insisted 
upon wearing her riding-habit, because, as she had told her mother, 
she was to be a sort of showman. Of course she did not want to 
wear boys’ clothes, but the riding-habit seemed sort of a go-be- 


FLUTTERS HAS A BENEFIT, 


85 


tween, “ and more like the thing a lady who managed a private 
circus would wear.” So Mrs. Boniface consented, and Josephine, 
in helping Hazel to dress, had added an extra touch or two. Her 
habit was made of gray cloth, with a long, full skirt that came 
within a foot of the ground when Hazel was on her pony ; but in 
order that she should be able to move about the platform as freely 
as was necessary, Josephine had caught the skirt up on one side, 
fastening it with two or three brilliant red chrysanthemums, and 
pinning a bunch of the same bright flowers against her waist. On 
her head she wore a black velvet jockey cap which had been sent 
her by her grandpa from England, and which completed the jaunti- 
ness of her costume. 

“ Members of Company F,” Hazel began, holding her riding- 
whip in both hands before her, “ I wish to thank you for coming 
here this afternoon, and to tell you that I hope you will feel repaid 
for your long march out from the city.” 

“No doubt about that. Miss Hazel,” Sergeant Bellows called 
out, heartily. 

“Thank you. Sergeant;” but Hazel’s manner was somewhat stiff, 
as though she preferred that more formality should be observed. 
“ But before commencing our performance,” she continued, “ I must 
ask you to bear in mind that it is not an easy thing to get up a 
regular circus in a private family, ’specially at such very short 
notice. There was no time to teach anything new, even to the 
baby, who learns very easily, and it was just by good luck that 
Prince and Kate and Delta knew some little tricks already. As for 
Flutters, it will not take you long to discover that his part of the 
performance needs no apology.” 

Hazel concluded her little speech with a graceful bow, and, 
turning toward Kate, who still sat smiling, announced : “ I have 
now the pleasure, gentlemen, of introducing to you Miss Kate 
Boniface, as fine a little three-year-old as ever was reared in West- 
chester County. Miss Kate is quite a favorite with the manage- 
ment, being, what we consider, a most gifted little lady. She has 
an original little dance of her own, one little song, and one little 
piece, which she speaks with dramatic eflect.” 

“Which s’all I do first. Hazel asked Kate, in a most audible 
whisper, when she saw that it was time for her to commence. 



“ Members of Company F, I wish to thank you for coming 


HERE THIS afternoon, 


FLUTTERS HAS A BENEFIT. 87 

“Why, the dance of course, child,” Hazel answered, forgetting 
their relations of manager and artiste. 

“ But where’s de music T 

Sure enough, where was the music “Job,” called Hazel, 
blushing up to the roots of her hair with embarrassment, “ we are 
waiting for you.” 

“ Coming, Mrs. Manager,” came the answer, and a moment later 
Starlight bounded through the green boughs, which had been ar- 
ranged at the back of the scene, violin in hand, and in a costume 
befitting the clown of the performance. His resemblance to the 
real article was truly quite remarkable, for Cousin Harry had 
taken a great deal of interest in his “ make-up,” and the result was 
a face as white, with cheeks as red and eyebrows as high, black, and 
arching, as were ev^er attained by Mr. John Dreyfus, the English 
clown of world-renowned reputation. Starlight was able to play 
half-a-dozen tunes on an old violin which had belonged to his 
grandfather, and this formed a most attractive and most important 
feature of the Boniface circus. Otherwise Company F would have 
been obliged to forego little Kate’s dancing, than which nothing 
was ever daintier or prettier. But not an inch would her little 
ladyship move from her chair till Starlight had gone through a 
series of scrapings called “tuning up,” and a merry little dancing 
tune was well under way. Then she jumped down, and running to 
the front of the platform made the most bewitching of conven- 
tional little bows, pressing the fingers of both hands to her lips, as 
if generously to throw the sweetest of kisses broadcast. It was 
very evident, then, to the Red Coats — Miss Hazel to the contrary — 
that there had been time enough to teach little Kate one new trick 
at any rate ; but the dancing itself was a matter of Kate’s own crea- 
tion, and of a sort that baffles description. She had never seen any 
one dance, no one had taught her, but as naturally as a little duck 
takes to the water, had her little feet taken to dancing on that 
evening when, for the first time. Starlight had brought his violin 
to the Bonifaces’. For fully ten minutes, to the great delight of 
Company F, little Kate kept time in a variety of intricate and 
pretty little motions to the rhythm of the old violin — a sort of danc- 
ing in which slow and graceful gestures of dimpled arms and hands 
played almost as important part as the little feet themselves. In- 


88 


A LOYAL LLTTLE LEE-COAT. 


deed, the whole proceeding was a deliberate one, owing to an in- 
ability on Starlight’s part to play any faster ; but to my thinking 



“ The dancing was a matter of Kate’s own creation.” 


all the prettier for that, and far more becoming to such a dignified 
little maiden. 

As for Company F, it would have liked nothing better than a 


FLUTTERS HAS A BENEFIT. 


89 


whole half-hour of dancing; but “Mrs. Manager” wisely protested, 
and after the little song had been rendered with “violin accompani- 
ment,” and the little piece spoken “with dramatic effect,” Miss 
Kate Boniface tripped from the stage ’midst hearty peals of 
applause, and Mrs. Manager, as Starlight had called Hazel, came 
once more to the front. 

“ I shall now have the pleasure of acquainting you, gentlemen,” 
she said, with all the superiority of a veritable showman, “ with my 
own little thoroughbred, one of the most knowing and accom- 
plished of Shetland ponies. Mr. Lightfoot, will you have the 
kindness to bring Miss Gladys into the ring.f^” whereupon Starlight, 
otherwise Mr. Lightfoot, led the pony on to the stage, or, I should 
say, “into the ring,” as Hazel preferred to regard it from a strictly 
professional point of view. Gladys had been groomed by Starlight 
and Flutters to within an inch of her life, in preparation for the 
occasion, and, indeed, she sorely needed it. The fact was that she 
had been turned out for the last two months owing to an un- 
fortunate gall on her back which had refused to heal under the 
saddle ; so, while her mistress had been dependent upon Albany 
coaches for such excursions as she wished to take into the city. 
Miss Gladys had been kicking up her heels and running races with 
herself in the most inviting of clover fields. Only yesterday had 
she been enjoying all this freedom, with burrs in her tail and burrs 
in her mane, and with never so much as a halter, and here she 
was to-day tricked out in blue ribbons, with her coat smoothed 
down to look as silky as possible, and with her four pretty little 
hoofs oiled up to a state of shiny blackness, but without the sign of 
shoe on any one of them. There had been no time, indeed, to 
have Miss Gladys shod, nor was there any need of it, as, after to- 
day’s performance, back she was to go again, for at least another 
month more, to all the wild dissipation of pony life in a clover 
field. Of course she was astonished at the sight of the soldiers, but 
she had been rehearsing with Starlight and Hazel for a whole hour 
that morning in that sort of “box stall” which formed the scene of 
the circus, and so, being somewhat familiar with the place, contented 
herself with an occasional pricking-up of her black-pointed ears, 
which only gave her a more spirited look, and, on the whole, was 
extremely becoming. 


90 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT, 


“Now, Miss Gladys,” said Hazel, when she had succeeded in 
getting her posed to her liking, “ I would like you to answer a few 
questions, and for each correct answer you shall have a beautiful 
lump of white sugar. Mr. Lightfoot, have you the sugar ready 

“Yes, Mrs. Manager,” answered Starlight, who, in his capacity of 
clown, was endeavoring all the while to keep up a funny sort of by- 
play, and sometimes succeeding; “yes, Mrs. Manager, the sugar is 
all ready. I have placed, as you perceive, five lumps upon either 
extended palm, and would like to make this arrangement, that when 
the pony makes a mistake I may be allowed to eat the sugar.” 

“Very well, Mr. Lightfoot, I am quite agreeable to the arrange- 
ment ; but, if I am not mistaken, the pony thinks you are likely to 
fare rather poorly; how about that. Miss Gladys? Do you intend 
that Mr. Lightfoot shall enjoy more than one of those lumps of 
sugar i^” Hazel stood leaning against the pony’s side, lightly swing- 
ing her riding-whip in apparently aimless fashion in her left hand, 
but in answer to her question. Miss Gladys shook her pretty head 
from side to side with as decided an assertion in the negative as 
though she had been able to voice an audible “ No.” “ There! what 
did I tell you, Mr. Lightfoot.^” 

“ Why 1 did Miss Gladys answer ? I didn’t hear her.” 

“ Of course you did not hear her. She answered by shaking her 
head. Ponies can’t talk.” 

“What ! can’t Miss Gladys say a word.^” 

“ No, certainly not.” 

“Not even neigh?” 

“That’s a very bad pun, Mr. Lightfoot. Don’t you think so. 
Miss Gladys Up and down went the pony’s head in ready 
assent. 

“Two questions answered with remarkable judgment. Now, 
two lumps of sugar, if you please, Mr. Lightfoot.” 

Gladys eagerly ate the sugar from Hazel’s gloved hand (for 
sugar was one of the few creature delights a clover field failed to 
offer, that is, in any form more concrete than the sweetness of a 
withered clover head), and looked as though perfectly willing to 
continue the process for an almost indefinite period. Indeed, for a 
long time Hazel continued to ply her with questions of great 
moment to Company F, such as, “ Is Sergeant Bellows the best 


FLUTTERS LIAS A BENEFIT 


91 


sergeant in his regiment?” “ Is ‘Company F’ the finest company?” 
and so on, to all of which Miss Gladys gave only the most compli- 
mentary of answers. Just when this part of the performance was 
coming to a close, Mr. Lightfoot stepped up to the pony, and said, 
in beseeching fashion, “ Look here. Miss Gladys, on the whole, you 
think Fm a pretty good sort of a fellow, now, don’t you?” The 
pony looked at Starlight a moment, and then shook her head, “Yes,” 
in a most decided manner. “ That’s a darling,” Starlight exclaimed, 
swinging himself on to Gladys’s back, in compliance with an order 
received from Hazel, and with his head resting on her mane and his 
arms clasped round her prettily-arched neck, rode off the stage. 
The soldiers, of course, were at first considerably astonished at the 
pony’s intelligent answers, but it did not take most of them long to 
discover that the shakings of Miss Gladys’s head were in every case 
controlled by a touch of Hazel’s whip. A gentle application of the 
lash on the right foreleg for yes and the same motion on the left 
one for no. Hazel had tried to conceal this little motion as best 
she could, but it was naturally not an easy matter, and when Miss 
Gladys had been kind enough to answer “Yes” to Mr. Lightfoot’s 
question, it was only because Hazel’s whip was in Starlight’s hand, 
and the pony^ felt the same familiar sensation upon her left fore- 
leg. 

Perhaps you wonder how it was that a little country pony was 
so unusually accomplished. Well, to tell the truth. Captain Boni- 
face deserved all the credit of it, and Hazel none at all. When 
Hazel herself was but a week old that pony had been bought for 
her, and, as soon as she was able to take notice of anything, Gladys 
used to be trotted out daily for her inspection. And so it happened 
that while Captain Boniface was waiting for his little daughter to 
grow large enough to ride her, he used to amuse himself, and Hazel 
as well, by endeavoring to teach the pony a few knowing tricks. 
They had required a world of patience, and with none of them had 
he been so successful as with what he called the “ pony shake,” and 
which just had been exhibited to so much advantage. 

“That Miss Hazel’s a cute un,” said one of the soldiers, in the 
little intermission that followed the exit of the pony. 

“ Cute’s no name for it,” answered Sergeant Bellows. 

“ She reminds me of my own little girl at home, whom I haven’t 


92 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT, 


seen in a five-year,” said the other, while a little mistiness betrayed 
itself in his soldier eyes. 

“ She may mind ye of her,” answered the Sergeant, not unkindly, 
but there isn’t a child anywhere. I’m thinking, that can hold a 
candle to Miss Hazel.” You see Sergeant Bellows was an old" 
bachelor, and without a relative in the world whom he cared for, 
and perhaps that accounted in a measure for his adoration of 
Hazel, though, no doubt, the little daughter of the red-haired soldier, 
who was probably red-haired too, was just as charming in the eyes 
of her father as Hazel in the eyes of the lonely old Sergeant. But 
further discussion as to comparative merits was brought to an end 
by the reappearance of Starlight on the stage, accompanied by his 
dog, Lord Nelson, who, much against his will, had been dragged 
aboard of the “ Gretchen ” that morning, and imported from his 
kennel at Paulus Hook especially for the occasion. Lord Nelson 
possessed quite a varied set of accomplishments, none of them very 
remarkable, however, and after Lord Nelson came Flutters! 
Flutters in velvet and spangles. Flutters of The Great English 
Circus, and who straightway proceeded to make the eyes of Com- 
pany F open wide with astonishment at his truly wonderful tum- 
bling and somersaults. There was no slipping of the little knee-cap 
to-day. It seemed to Flutters quite impossible in the happy life he 
was leading, that knee-caps or anything else that concerned him 
should ever get much out of order again. 

As may be easily imagined, the audience would not be satisfied 
till Flutters had favored them with repeated encores, but when the 
performance was at last concluded, there was a call for the entire 
troupe, and, in response, out they came, hand-in-hand, Hazel and 
Kate, Starlight and Flutters; Starlight leading Lord Nelson 
with the hand that was free, and Flutters Miss Gladys. A lo,;, 
smiling bow from them all — for even Gladys and Lord Nelson 
were made to give a compulsory nod — then the line retreated a foot 
or two, the shawl-curtain dropped into place, and the entertainment 
was over. At least so thought Company F, but it was mistaken, 
for no sooner had Hazel and Starlight disappeared behind the 
curtain, than out they came in front of it, and then down among the 
soldiers, Starlight carrying a tray full of glasses filled with the 
most inviting lemonade, and Hazel following with an old-fashioned 


FLUTTERS HAS A BENEFIT 


93 


silver cake-basket heaped high with delicious sponge cake of 
Josephine’s best manufacture. Then for half-an-hour they had 
quite a social time’ of it. Captain and Mrs. Boniface, who had 
watched the performance from two comfortable chairs at the rear of 
Company F, were talking with some of the men ; Flutters, who, 
for very good reasons, was still in costume, was the centre of 
another little group ; while Kate, from the safe vantage point of 
Josephine’s lap, chatted away, to the great entertainment of old 
Sergeant Bellows. Suddenly the Sergeant seemed to recall some- 
thing important, for he jumped up, seized his hat, and began pass- 
ing it from one to another of the men, all of whom had, apparently, 
come prepared for this feature of the entertainment. 

Hazel was greatly relieved when she saw the hat in active cir- 
culation. She had felt afraid that the Sergeant had forgotten this 
part of the programme, and did not fancy the idea of having to 
remind him of it. Indeed he had come pretty near forgetting it, so 
absorbed had he been in the charms of little Kate, but as a result of 
the collection taken up by the Sergeant, Hazel found herself in pos- 
session of a contribution sufficiently generous to purchase a fine little 
outfit for Flutters. And so it came about that Flutters had a 
“ benefit” and Company F an afternoon of what they termed “ rare 
good fun.” 


CHAPTER X. 


DARLING OLD AUNT FRANCES. 



ERHAPS you think that 
is a queer title for a chap- 
ter. Y ou would not think 
it queer at all if you had 
known her, for that is ex- 
actly what she was, and 
now and then it is just as 
well to call people by their 
right names. She was not 
old, however, in the sense 
of being wrinkled and 
white-haired and thin. 
Sometime, when some- 
body has been very kind 
to you, and has done you 
a “ good turn” in real re- 
liable fashion, haven’t you 
just rushed up to them 
and exclaimed, “You dear old thing,” as if any mere young 
thing would be quite incapable of such a deed of loving-kindness ? 
Well, in just the sense of being very kind and very reliable. Aunt 
Frances was old, and in no other. To be sure, she was nearing her 
fiftieth birthday, and there was a generous sprinkling of gray hair 
on her temples, but the gray hair only made her face softer and 
sweeter, and her heart was no older than bonny Kate’s. 

Well, Aunt Frances sat knitting in a high-backed rocker on the 
wide step in front of the Van Vleet’s door, a step that was made 
from one great unhewn stone, but whose roughnesses had been 


DARLING OLD AUNT FRANCES, 


95 


rounded down by the rains and storms of a hundred summers and 
winters. On the edge of the step, with his back against one of the 
large tubs of hydrangea which flanked the wide door-step on either 
side, sat Harry Avery. He had been silent for a long while. He 
was trying to get his courage up to say something to Aunt Frances, 
something that he knew it would grieve her to hear, and she had 
had so much to bear lately, he could not easily bring himself to it. 
“ Aunt Frances,” he said, at last, “ I know you’ll be sorry about it, 
but I think I shall have to go away to-morrow.” 

“ Why, Harry, what do you mean T while the tears gathered as 
quickly in her kind eyes as the clouds of an April shower darken 
an April sky, “ and besides, where will you go T' 

‘‘ Home, I suppose,” and then it would have been an easy thing 
for Harry, grown fellow that he was, to have mustered a few honest 
tears on his own account. 

“You see I am not willing to stay here any longer since you 
have to pay my board. And then you have so little money com- 
ing in now.” 

“ But the Van Vleets only allow me to pay a very small sum, 
and, Harry, you are such a comfort to me. Starlight’s a dear, good 
boy, but he is not old enough for me to burden him with all my 
troubles as I do you. Tell me this, do you want to go home T 

“No, I do not want to go home in the least. You know what 
I mean. I’d give a great deal to see father and mother and the 
youngsters; but there’s nothing for me to do in New London — that 
is, not the sort of work that I think I am equal to, and, after leav- 
ing it the way I did, I hate to go back empty-handed. Then, I’m 
sure, father would much rather I’d find something to do in New 
York. He believes there is a good deal more of a chance for a 
fellow here.” 

“ And you have heard of nothing, Harry ; nothing whatever T 
Aunt Frances let her knitting fall in her lap, and looked straight 
at Harry as she spoke. There was something strange about this 
direct look from Aunt Frances. It seemed to compel the exact 
truth from everybody, even from Pat, the Van Vleets’ hired man, 
who did not ordinarily hesitate in telling an untruth if it would 
make things more comfortable. And so Harry did not even suc- 
ceed in making an evasive reply, as he should like to have done. 



“Aunt Frances let her knitting fall in her lap, and looked straight at Harry.’* 



r>ARLING OLD AUNT FRANCES. 


97 


but just answered, very simply and honestly: “Yes, Aunt Frances, 
I did hear of something — a clerkship in a lawyer’s office — but I de- 
cided not to take it.” 

“ Decided not to take it Why, that is the very position you 
said you would like above all others !” 

“ Did I say that 1 well, fellows are queer sometimes, aren’t 
they T 

“ Harry Avery, there is something mysterious about all this. 
What was the name of the lawyer .f*” 

'‘Oh, no matter, Auntie! The whole matter’s decided. I made 
up my mind not to take it, and that ends it.” 

Aunt Frances was not to be silenced in this fashion. She 
had a right to search this matter out, and search it she would. 
“Harry,” as if she were speaking to some little child, “ Harry, look 
me right in the eyes, and tell me, was it Colonel Hamilton 

“ Yes;” but Harry looked off at the river. He had not the sort 
of courage to look Aunt Frances “right in the eyes,” as she bade 
him, for if there was a man anywhere whom she had a right 
thoroughly to despise, surely it was Colonel Hamilton — Colonel 
Hamilton, whose skilful reasoning had deprived her of the home 
that was almost as dear to her as life itself. 

“ Is the position still open to you.?” Aunt Frances was now gaz- 
ing off to the river, and with the mark of deep thinking on her 
face. “If it is, you must take it. Colonel Hamilton is a great 
lawyer. It is as fine an opening as you could possibly desire. I, 
for one, have no notion of standing in your light, Harry, and you 
must not do yourself the injustice of standing in your own.” 

“ But, Aunt Frances — ” 

‘‘No, don’t interrupt me, Harry; only listen, like a good boy, 
and do just as I tell you. Take the ‘Gretchen’ first thing in the 
morning, go straight to Colonel Hamilton’s office, and apply for the 
place. Tell him all about yourself, and answer every question he 
may ask in the most straightforward manner, but do not volunteer 
the information that you are a relative of mine. It would not do 
you any good and it might do harm — that is, it might incline the 
Colonel less kindly toward you. Unless some one has gotten ahead 
of you, you will secure the place, I am sure of it, and no one will be 
more glad for you than just my very self.” 


98 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT. 


“ Aunt Frances,” said Harry, watching the needles that were 
again flashing in the afternoon sunlight, “you are the dearest old 
trump that ever knitted stockings for a fool of a fellow like me.” 

“ If I thought this stocking was really to grace a fool’s leg” — and 
Aunt Frances feigned great seriousness — “not another stitch would 
I take ; but, begging your pardon, you would have been a fool 
indeed if you had not told me about all this, although I perfectly 
understand that your motives for not telling me were anything but 
foolish. No, Harry; somehow I am sure it is only providential that 
you should have heard of this place. Promise to try for it.” 

“ I promise,” and Harry’s lightened heart unconsciously betrayed 
itself in voice and look. He had wanted the situation, oh ! so much, 
more than he would admit even to himself, but he had decided he 
must forego any attempt to secure it. It would be, he thought, at 
too great a cost to Aunt Frances’s feelings, and he simply must not 
ask it. 

“ Look, Harry,” she said, shading her eyes with one hand, “ isn’t 
that the Boniface boat about a mile to the left of the point?” 

“Yes, it is,” Harry answered, merely glancing in that direction; 
“ but tell me one thing before I go down to the wharf : tell me, 
Aunt Frances, do you think Colonel Hamilton an unprincipled 
man ?” 

“ Unprincipled ! Why, Harry, do you suppose for a single 
moment that I would urge you to seek a situation under him if I 
thought that? No, I believe that he honestly felt that the English 
ought to be allowed to keep possession of the houses th^t we had 
abandoned, and so perhaps it was only natural that when Captain 
Wadsworth took his case to him, he should bring all his eloquence, 
which is very great, to bear on that side of the question. Never- 
theless I confess, as that eloquence cost me my home, I cannot but 
feel pretty sore about it, and would go a long way out of my way to 
avoid meeting him, brave officer and brilliant lawyer as he is.” 

Harry felt considerably relieved by this assertion, and strolled 
down to the boat-landing with even more admiration for “ darling 
old Aunt Frances” than he had ever felt before. It was so unusual, 
he thought, to find a woman who could reason fairly, independent 
of her heart. 

But Aunt Frances was not quite so ‘ independent of her heart,’ 


DARLING OLD AUNT FRANCES, 


99 


as Harry put it, as Harry and the rest of the world thought, and for 
the very good reason that her heart was as big as herself. And so 
when Harry had left her, what did she do but lay aside her knitting, 
go straight up to her own little room in one of the gable ends of the 
house, shut the door of it, and then, sitting down in a low little 
rocking-chair, bury her face in her hands and cry. It had nqt been 
by any means an easy thing for her to urge Flarry to seek a position 
under a man who had wrought her so much harm, but it had been 
her plain duty, at whatever cost to herself, and she had done it. 
Now when Aunt Frances cried, it was because that great heart of 
hers had had one little ache crowded upon another little ache till it 
could bear no more, and then the hot tears (there was no 

choice at all in the matter) be allowed to flow for a while and ease 
it. But for all this, do not think for a moment that Aunt Frances 
was an unhappy sort of person. Each little experience of her life 
and of the lives of others had a very deep significance for her, 
because she believed with all her heart that God watches over every 
life and guides it, and no one who believes that can ever be un- 
happy long at a time; life is to them too beautiful and earnest. But 
this was the way of it with Aunt Frances : she had a great capacity 
for loving, if you understand what that means, but she did not have 
as much of a chance to spend that love as many another, who had 
not half as much to spend. She would always be Miss Frances 
Avery, she felt sure of that ; yet what a tender, loving wife she could 
have made for somebody ! She should never have any one nearer 
to her than Harry and Starlight (bless their hearts!) but oh, what a 
mother she might have been with her great passionate love for little 
children ! And so it was that Aunt Frances trod the round of the 
life God had sent her, because He had sent it, contentedly and 
happily, and yet it would happen now and then that some thought- 
less word or deed would almost unaccountably set one little spot to 
aching, and something else would set another, till her heart was all 
one great ache, and the pent-up tears must come. Aunt Frances 
could always tell perfectly well when there was need to retreat to 
the little room in the gable, the little room that had been hers now, 
for the two years since she had fled from her own home across the 
river; and while she sat there on the step with Harry she knew well 
enough what she should do the moment he was gone. It was not 


loo 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT. 


that she did not mean every word she said to him ; it was only that 
somehow that little talk had overcharged the brave heart. 

Afterward, when the Bonifaces’ b^oat had touched at the dock 
and all the Van Vleets were flocking out of doors to welcome them, 
Aunt Frances was in their midst, with the sunshine of her presence 
all the brighter for the storm of troubled feelings that had just 
swept over it, but Josephine Boniface thought she saw just 
the faintest trace of recent tears in Aunt Frances’s eyes as she 
stooped to kiss her. “ Dear old Aunt Frances,” she whispered, 
as she put her arm about her neck, “ I would give all the world 
ever to be such a blessed ministering angel as you are to everybody.” 

“Why, Josephine, darling, what foolishness,” whispered Aunt 
Frances; but it needed onl)^ those few sweet words to banish 
even the trace of tears, and to make her thoroughly light-hearted 
once again. 


CHAPTER XL 



HE Van Vleet family was com- 
posed of seven individuals. There 
were Father and Mother Van 
Vleet, who had been married 
while both were in their teens, 
and their five children, Gretchen, 
Heide, Francesca, Pauline, and 
Hans Van Vleet, who had been 
born in the order named in 
the seven years immediately 
succeeding their parents’ mar- 
riage. So, in point of fact, 
now that they were grown, 
there was scarcely any per- 
ceptible difference between 
this comfortable Dutch cou- 
ple and their children, save 
that the children were taller, 
which made it seem more of 
a joke that they should actually belong to a father and mother who 
looked almost as young themselves. All this combined to make them 
a united and congenial family, and they lived in a comfort- 
able old Dutch homestead and were very well-to-do, owing 
to the well-tilled acres that stretched down to the river in front 
of them and back to the ridge of the Jersey Flats behind. But 
there was one minor chord in the otherwise cheery harmony of the 
Van Vleet household. Pauline, the youngest sister, now about 
twenty-two, was not “quite bright,” but she was serene and, as 


THE VAN VLEETS GIVE A TEA-PARTY. 


102 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT. 


a rule, perfectly happy, which is a deal more than can be said 
of many people, be they ever so bright. There were two reasons 
for this serenity of Pauline’s : her own naturally placid temperament 
and the tender care with which all the others watched over her. 
But one thing must be confessed, they were not a patriotic family, 
and the blood in their veins coursed somewhat sluggishly. They 
had rather hoped that the colonists would win in the war of the 
Revolution, thinking, no doubt, it would be more to their interest, 
yet it had never once occurred to Hans or his father to shoulder a 
flintlock in place of a hoe and go and help them. They were 
a good, narrow, stay-at-home family, with their thoughts moving 
in one and the same channel, and with interests bounded by their 
own acres, their own experiences, and those of their nearest 
neighbors. 

But there was one delightful feature about their neutrality : they 
could be the best of friends alike with Whigs and Royalists, and 
were able to invite the Bonifaces to a tea party just as cor- 
dially as they could offer the shelter of their home to poor fugi- 
tive Aunt Frances. And a few days before they had invited them. 
Kind old Mrs. Van Vleet, knowing that these were very lonely 
days at best for Captain Boniface’s family, determined to do all 
that lay in her power to brighten them, and so a formal invitation, 
written by Heide in the stiffest of little cramped hands, was sent 
them. Mrs. Boniface had accepted most gladly. It meant so much 
to have this evidence of true friendship at a time when many old 
friends were looking askance and turning a cold shoulder. 

And now Saturday afternoon had come, the first Saturday 
in October, and the Boniface boat was tacking across the river in 
the teeth of a bracing west wind. They were all there, the entire 
household, from Captain Boniface, at the helm, to Flutters, in 
his well-fitting corduroys, seated astride of the bow. Flutters 
loved to be in the “front of things” generally, but in the pres- 
ent instance it frequently became necessary for him to draw his 
knees quickly up to his chin, being quite too newly shod to 
run the risk of contact with the salt water white caps that now 
and then thumped plumply against the bow. Harry Avery was 
at the wharf long before the little boat touched it, and stood 


THE VAN VLEETS GIVE A TEA-PARTY. 


03 


whittling a brier-wood stick as he waited, and dreaming the while 
the happiest dreams about the future that might open up before 
him if he should secure that position with Colonel Hamilton. 
Somehow or other Harry felt almost certain he could get ahead in 
the world if it would only give him any sort of a chance. 

“ Halloo there, Harry ! a penny for your thoughts,” called Captain 
Boniface, bringing his boat about and alongside of the wharf in true 
sailor fashion. 

Harry jumped to his feet and blushed like a school-girl, as if he 
half feared the thought of his heart could be read by them all. “ It 
is fortunate that I am not bound to tell them,” he answered, 
catching the rope which the Captain had thrown him, and securing 
it to a staple. 

“ No, not bound, of course, but thoughts ought to be of a pretty 
high order that make you unmindful of the coming of the ‘ Gray- 
ling’ and the Bonifaces.” 

Harry was glad to find the Captain in this lighter vein, for life 
had been too serious and complicated a matter lately for him often 
to forget its seriousness. As for Mrs. Boniface, she had been both 
surprised and delighted when she found her husband willing to 
accept the V an Vleets’ invitation, for lately it had been quite im- 
possible to get him to take any interest in anything of the sort, and 
she feared a kind but absolute refusal. But no sooner had the 
Grayling” cleared her dock than the Captain seemed to regain his 
wonted good spirits, and to leave all his heavy-heartedness behind, 
and glad indeed was his little family to see him in a cheery mood 
once more. 

As soon as the Bonifaces commenced to ascend the beautiful 
grass-grown meadow, which swept down to the water’s edge, out 
came all the Van Vleets to meet them and escort them up to the 
house ; and it was a remarkable old dwelling, unlike anything one 
would see nowadays, if it were not that two or three such home- 
steads have chanced to survive the ravages of a century, by grace of 
having once been dignified as “ Washington’s Headquarters.” 

It was a double two-story house, or rather three-story, if 
you count the little rooms in the gables. It was built of 
stone, coated with a rough sort of plaster, and faced the 
river ; its large square stoop, flanked with its two benches, being 


104 


A LOYAL LITTLE RED-COAT, 


protected by the overhanging eaves of the roof itself. The front 
door, seldom opened, was ornamented with a huge brass knocker 
in the shape of a lion’s head, and was daily burnished with as 
much thoroughness as though in constant use. Indeed, it must 



The Van Vleet Homestead. 


be confessed that in front everything was severe and prim and pain- 
fully stiff, but fortunately at the side things were different. Indeed, 
the house, in its two entirely different aspects, resembled an old 
army officer, always stern and arbitrary with his men for the sake 


THE VAN VLEETS GIVE A TEA-PARTY. 105 

of discipline, but ‘another fellow altogether’ when off duty and in 
the company of his brother officers. At the side it was as though 
you surprised it in undress uniform. In the first place, there was 
always, in the season, a great profusion of flowers; not, however, in 
conventional flower beds, but parading their blaze of color from 
painted tubs, m.ounted here and there on the table-like tops of old 
tree stumps, which had evidently survived the first clearing of the 
land. Fortunately for general effectiveness, these tubs were not 
filled with a promiscuous assortment of plants, but each held the 
luxurious growth of some single variety — here a hydrangea, with 
its wealth of heavy-headed blooms, fairly concealing its leaves ; there 
a great cluster of peonies or brilliant scarlet geraniums. As might 
be expected on the first Saturday of October, many of these plants 
bore only a few tardy blossoms, and some of them had evidently 
lost all heart with the first intimation of frost; but in the centre of 
the old-fashioned grass plot was a contrivance that from June well 
into November presented a remarkable blaze of color, varying with 
every month, and always beautiful. This contrivance, called by the 
Van Vleets “The flower fountain,” was composed of a series of five 
circular shelves, each shelf a little smaller in circumference than the 
one below it, and terminating, at the height of about five feet from 
the ground, in a round flat top. These shelves were constantly 
crowded with pots of plants in full bloom. Indeed, Hans kept a 
sort of nursery for no other reason than to supply the fountain, and 
the moment a plant took it into its head to bloom no longer, or only 
in a spiritless way, back it was marched to the nursery, and another 
took its place. What a fine thing it would be if some of the 
little folk too, who are not blooming out into just the sort of grown 
folk we could wish, might simply be remanded to the nursury, there 
to be restarted, after the manner of Hans’s plants, and perhaps coaxed 
into a more satisfying growth than they now, alas! give promise of! 
But if it had not been for this flower fountain, who knows but Hans 
might have gone to the war.? You can see how it would not be an 
easy thing for a placid, kind-hearted Dutchman, who loved the 
training and slipping and potting of plants above everything else in 
the world, to turn his pruning-knife into a sword. 

On the afternoon of the tea-party this fountain was ablaze with 
chrysanthemums, varying in color from the darkest red to the palest 


io6 


A. LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT. 


pink, and from orange to pure white. The plants of one shelf hid 
the pots of the shelf above it, and the lowest shelf of all was sunk 
so low in the ground as to be concealed by the grass. But what 
gave this side of the house the “ homiest” look of all was the row of 
shining milk tins ranged in a row on a low bench, and tilted against 
the wall. Then, just beyond them, the kitchen door opened, and 
such a kitchen ! with tables and dresser and every wooden thing in 
it scoured to immaculate whiteness, and with white sand daily sifted 
upon the floor in most remarkable patterns. In this kitchen the 
Van Vleets not only ate, but lived, and so it possessed that undefina- 
ble charm which sometimes belongs to the living-room of a family, 
and never to any other. In preparation for the Bonifaces’ coming, 
large, high-backed Dutch rockers had been ranged round this 
kitchen door, and here the little party seated themselves under the 
uncertain shade of a half-leafless oak-tree, that allowed the warm 
sunshine to slant gratefully down upon them, and where they could 
enjoy the flower fountain to the full. The Misses Van Vleet were 
busy within doors attending to the preparations for supper — that is, 
with the exception of Pauline, who was always at liberty to do 
pretty much as she chose ; and what she had chosen to do this 
afternoon was this : After the Bonifaces had come up from their 
boat she had noticed somebody still moving about in it, so down 
she went to investigate. Then, when she reached a point near 
enough to be quite satisfactory to her ladyship, she sat herself down 
on the low, straight limb of a stunted apple-tree, and waited. 


CHAPTER XIL 


AN INTERRUPTION. 



HE somebody moving about in 
the “Grayling” was Flutters. 
He was arranging boat cush- 
ions, folding up wraps and 
shawls, and putting things gen- 
erally to rights. Dear little 
fellow ! No one had told him 
he ought to do this ; he did 
it quite by grace of his own 
thoughtful intuition, and he 
found so many little things 
all the while to do, and did 
them all so gladly, that he 
wondered a trifle proudly how 
the Bonifaces had ever man- 
aged without him, and the 
Bonifaces wondered too. 

Finally, when Flutters had 
gotten everything into literally 
ship-shape condition, and quite 
to his mind, off he started up 
the bank, bending far over, as one must when one attempts to scale 
a steep place rapidly. So it chanced that he did not see Miss 
Pauline at all until she spoke to him, and he was himself directly 
under the scant shadow of the apple-tree. 

“ Not so fast, sir,” said Pauline, in an authoritative way, which 
brought Flutters, surprised and breathless, to a standstill. 


io8 


A LOYAL LLTTLE LEE-COAT. 


“ Sit down,” she added in a moment, pointing to a rock covered 
with gray moss, and confronting the limb where she was sitting. 

Flutters mechanically obeyed. He knew she must be one of the 
family, and as he had met many queer people in his day, did not 
marvel that here was somebody, to all appearances, a little queerer 
than the rest. She looked very pretty balanced there on the low 
limb of the tree, in her full-skirted gray gown, and with the western 
sunlight shining on her back and turning her curling yellow hair 
into a sort of halo about her forehead. Flutters sat and stared at 
her. 

“ Do you like my looks she asked complacently. 

“Yes,” replied Flutters, astonished; “you are a Miss Van Vleet, 
aren’t you 

“Yes, Fm Miss Pauline Van Vleet.” 

“ I thought so,” Flutters remarked, just by way of saying some- 
thing. 

“ It is best never to say what you think,” said Miss Pauline 
solemnly. “ Folks get themselves into trouble that way.” 

Flutters felt inclined to suggest that people would be very 
stupid and uninteresting if they did not sometimes say what they 
thought, but wisely concluded it was better not to start an argument 
with this peculiar young person. 

“ Are you a new Boniface T asked Pauline, scanning him 
closely. 

“ No, not exactly,” laughed Flutters. 

“ I did not ask what you were exactly ; are you a new Boniface 
at all T 

What a queer question, thought Flutters, and then went to work 
to answer it to the best of his ability.' 

“No, I am not a Boniface at all, but I am new in this part of 
the country. I used to live in England.” 

“ What is your name Y' 

“ Flutters.” 

Miss Pauline seemed very much amused at this, saying it over 
to herself two or three times. “ Did your father use to call you 
Flutters she asked presently, looking at him scarchingly. 

“ No,” he answered, the color rushing into his brown face, for 
no one had asked him that direct question before. 



no 


A LOYAL LLTTLE LEE-COAT. 


“ What did he call you ?” 

“ He called me — he called me — but that is one of the things I 
do not tell to anybody.” 

“ But, Flutters, child, you will tell me, just me,” and Pauline 
looked at him with a look as pathetic as though she were pleading 
for her life. 

“But I can’t. Miss Pauline, really I can’t;” whereupon Miss 
Pauline buried her face in her two pretty hands, and began to cry 
like a child. 

“ Why, you’re not crying for that, surely Flutters asked, never 
more astonished in his life. 

“ Yes, just for that — just for that — and I’ll cry harder and harder 
until you tell.” 

The truth was, all the Van Vleets were so in the habit of 
humoring this poor sister of theirs, and never crossing her will if it 
could possibly be helped, that this refusal on Flutters’s part truly 
seemed to her most preposterous, and she was shedding actual tears. 
Flutters saw one or two of them find their way through her fingers, 
and, like other heroes, relented at the sight ; besides, what else was 
to be done ? 

“ I will tell you, I will tell you,” he said softly ; “ my real name is 
Arthur Wainwright and the mere sound of it, whispered though it 
was, made him start. It was so long now since he had heard 
it on the lips of any one ! Indeed, it did not seem as though it 
belonged to him at all. 

“ That’s a pretty name,” replied Pauline, beginning to be com- 
forted and to dry her tears ; “ now tell me a// about you.” 

“ Oh, I can’t,” replied Flutters, pained at the need of refusing ; 
“ I mus^ keep it a secret.” 

“ You can keep it a secret all the same,” said Pauline sadly, and 
with that insight into her own deficiencies which sometimes flashes 
across a distraught mind, “ for, you see, I cannot remember it long 
enough to tell it to anybody, so tell me, please — please tell me ; 
nothing makes Pauline so happy as a real true story.” 

The entreaty in her voice was too much for Flutters, and he 
dreaded more than he could express a fresh outburst of tears, there- 
fore he decided to run the risk, and try if he could to make Miss 
Pauline happy, especially as he thought it highly probable that what 


AJV INTERRUPTION, 


III 


she said was true, and that she really would not remember any- 
thing long enough to repeat it. 

“There is not much about me,” he began, “ but I will tell you 
all there is.” It did not occur to his honest little soul that any 
story he might have chosen to concoct would have answered just 
as well for Miss Pauline. He neither added to nor in any way 
digressed from the exact truth. 

“ My father was an Englishman,” he continued, “ and he lived 
for a while in India, for he had some business there, and my mother 
was a colored woman,” 

“ Oh, dear me !” said Pauline, “ I would not like a father of one 
sort and a mother of another ; which kind did you like best T 

“ I do not remember my mother at all, but my father said she 
was beautiful and a good woman, but not just what people call a 
lady. She died when I was two years old, and then my father 
took me to England, and then after a while he married a real lady, 
a white English lady like himself, and they had some lovely white 
children ; but the English mother never liked me. I think she 
couldn’t somehow. Miss Pauline” — he seemed to reason as though 
he were afraid of blaming anybody — “ and I thought I was in the 
way — in the way even of my father ; and so one day I ran off 
and joined a circus that was coming to America. But I did 
not care for the circus very much, and so Job Starlight and Miss 
Hazel helped me to run away from that, and now I’m Miss Hazel’s 
body servant, and the Bonifaces seem to like me, and I never was 
so happy in all my life before.” 

“ That’s a very nice story, too nice for a secret. Why don’t you 
tell it ’round ?” 

“ Oh, because I don’t want my father ever to hear of me, for 
then he might send for me, and I want to stay with the Bonifaces 
always. You won’t tell, will you. Miss Pauline Y' 

“ I would if I could,” she answered, with a spirit of mischief, 
“ but you can’t tell things if your head’s like a sieve, and lets every- 
thing through, can you ? Now is there nothing more 

“ No, there isn’t,” Flutters answered, a little shortly, indignant at 
her answer. It hardly paid, he thought, to be kind to a young lady 
who acted like that. But fortunately Pauline did not notice the 
curtness of his reply. 


II2 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT, 


“ Then give me your hand, Flutters, and \yedl go up to the 
house.” 

“No, I thank you. Boys as big as I am don’t need to be 
helped along by the hand.” 

“ Flutters,” she said solemnly, “give — me — your — hand or Til — 
ril cry harder than before.” 

“ Oh dear, dear, dear,” thought Flutters, “ is there no way out of 
this T and he looked furtively down the bank toward the boat, as 
though he seriously contemplated taking to his heels and launch- 
ing out upon the river as the only adequate means of escape. But 
suddenly Miss Pauline put one hand to her ear, and Flutters, look- 
ing in the direction in which she pointed with the other, saw that 
some one up at the house was ringing a bell, and at the same time 
too heard its tinkling, which Pauline’s keen hearing had been quick 
to detect. 

Flutters,” she said, gazing down at him with the most satisfied 
smile imaginable, “ that means supper. Come on up;” then away 
she flew toward the house, leaving Flutters to follow at a reason- 
able gait, and profoundly thankful to be relieved from the alterna- 
tive of either being led by the hand or taking refuge in ignominious 
flight. 


CHAPTER XIII. 


MORE ABOUT THE TEA-PARTY. 



O one had noticed the tete-a-tete 
which Flutters and Miss Pauline 
had been holding at a dis- 
tance, only when Flutters 
came on the scene Hazel 
asked what had kept him so 
long, and he made some eva- 
sive reply. He hoped no 
one would ever know of the 
encounter. In the first place, 
because he foolishly felt he 
had somehow been gotten 
the best of, and, in the second 
place, because Miss Pauline 
had heard what he had fully 
intended no one of his new 
friends ever should hear. 

As a member of the Van Vleet household. Starlight naturally 
felt a share in the responsibility of entertaining, and, taking Flutters 
under his wing, presented him to one and another of the family as 
Flutters, the new boy over at the Bonifaces’.” 

“No such thing,” said Miss Pauline when in turn Flutters was 
introduced to her ; “ he’s not a new Boniface at all ; I know better 
than that, don’t I, dear T 

“ Oh, what shall, what shall I say ?” groaned Flutters inwardly ; 
but Starlight dragged him away v/ith the explanation that the 
young lady was not right in her mind, and so there was no necessity 
of saying anything. 


1 14 A LOYAL LLTTLE LEE-COAT. 

It proved a most inviting table that the Van Vleets had spread 
for their Royalist friends. Two deep apple pies graced either end 
of it; a great platter of doughnuts or “ oly keoks,” as the Dutch has 
it, had been placed in the centre, towered above, on one side, by a 
long-stemmed glass dish of preserved peaches, and, on the other side, 



Good Cheer at the Van Vleets 


by a similar dish of preserved pears. Frau Van Vleet presided over 
a large Delft teapot ornamented, as Washington Irving describes a 
similar pot, “with paintings of fat little Dutch shepherds and shep- 
herdesses, tending pigs, with boats sailing in the air and houses 
built in the clouds, and sundry other ingenious Dutch fantasies.” 
As the kitchen table was not of the extension variety, and so not 


MORE ABOUT THE TEA-BAR TV. 


115 

capable of accommodating the entire party, places had to be set for 
Hans, Harry Avery, and two of the Van Vleet sisters at a separate 
table in one corner. 

At the back of Frau Van Vleet’s customary seat at the larger 
table was the great open fireplace, which was roomy enough to accom- 
modate two people on each of the benches lining either side of it. 
On a crane, suspended over the crackling logs, hung a huge copper 
tea-kettle, from which Harry, since he had been staying with the 
Van Vleets, had taken upon himself the duty of refilling the Delft 
teapot whenever needed during the progress of a meal, and indeed 
had completely won the heart of the kind old Frau, as soon as he 
had come among them, by his eagerness to serve her in every possi- 
ble way. To-night he was kept busy, for both Van Vleets and 
Bonifaces were famous tea-drinkers, only they managed the matter 
differently in those days. The lump of sugar was placed beside the 
cup, not in it, and people nibbled and sipped alternately. The 
principal hot dish of the tea-party was broiled ham, and, done to a 
turn and deliciously savory, was delicate enough to -tempt almost 
any appetite. Then there were two blue china plates heaped with 
biscuits, every one of which, from very lightness, had risen and risen, 
till top and bottom were a long way apart ; but notwithstanding 
these generous proportions, the two blue plates had been emptied 
and replenished more than once before all were satisfied. 

Miss Pauline’s seat at the table had been placed at quite a dis- 
tance from Flutters, but, without daring often to look in her direc- 
tion. Flutters felt with considerable nervousness that her gaze was 
riveted almost constantly upon him. Finally, to his astonishment, 
and at a time when there had been a pause of several seconds, she 
announced very calmly, “ Wainwright’s a nice little boy. I like his 
looks and he likes mine ; don’t you, VVainwright ?” 

Flutters kept his eyes on his plate, and in his embarrassment 
swallowed two or three morsels of ham that were far too large in 
far too rapid succession. “ She’ll tell it all, if they only give her 
time,” he thought savagely, but he did not intend to make any reply. 

“ She means you. Flutters,” whispered Miss Heide, who sat next 
to him. “ You had better answer her, ‘ that you do like her looks.’ 
We never differ with her. It is just a fancy of hers, this calling you 
Wainwright; but where could she ever have heard the name?” 


ii6 A LOYAL LITTLE RED-COAT 

“If it only were a fancy,” thought Flutters, while Miss Pauline 
sat, with her teacup poised in her pretty hand, waiting his reply. 

“Yes, I like your looks,” said Flutters in a compulsory sort of 
way that made every one smile, while the color surged over his 
brown face. 

“ That’s right,” she answered complacently, “ and I wouldn’t mind 
at all about your mother being colored, because that’s how you 
come by your dark skin, and your dark skin is the beauty of you.” 

Miss Pauline was growing rather personal, and it certainly did 
look as though she knew what she was talking about ; but fortunate- 
ly no one attached any weight to what she said, and as she seemed 
inclined to follow up a line of thought which must at least be 
annoying to poor little Flutters, the sister who sat nearest her tried 
quietly to divert her, while another started a new topic of general 
conversation. 

At last the meal was over, and Flutters was glad ; nor was he the 
only one that felt relieved. Captain Boniface had finished his sup- 
per sometime before the others, and for the last ten minutes had 
been nervously taking up his tumbler and setting it down, and shift- 
ing his position in his chair, as though unable longer to keep his 
long legs penned under the narrow table. Mrs. Boniface had 
noticed it and wondered at it, and felt thankful when Frau Van 
Vleet pushed back her chair and so gave the signal to the others. 

“ Oh, dear, what can the matter be T screeched a great green 
parrot hanging in its cage by the doorway, and who had appar- 
ently been roused from deep reverie by the scraping of the chairs 
on the sanded floor. Mrs. Boniface gave a start of surprise, for 
the parrot had given exact expression to her own thoughts. She 
was watching her husband closely, and knew by experience that 
something was troubling him, and yet he had been so*gay that very 
afternoon. I believe it was all assumed,” she thought to herself, 
and the more she thought, the more assured she felt that she was 
right. Oh, how she longed to steal over to him and question him ; 
but no, that would not do. Frau Van Vleet had arranged two 
chairs side by side for a neighborly chat, and there was no way out 
of it. 

Now that the supper was over, the Misses Van Vleet’s domestic 
duties were over too, the clearing of the table being left to 


MORE ABOUT THE TEA-PARTY. 


117 



“ Rhuna,” an old crone 
of a negro servant, who 
had been with them 
many years. Then, as 
was their wont, the 
young ladies resorted 
each to her particular 
rush-bottomed chair and 
the knitting of her own 
woollen stockings, while 
Josephine, with little 
Kate upon her lap, en- 
deavored to make her 
exhibit some of her 
pretty accomplishments 
for their general amuse- 
ment. Hazel, Starlight, 
and Flutters had accom- 
panied Hans Van Vleet 
and his father off to the 
barn for the milking, 
while Captain Boniface 
and Harry, in close con- 
versation, walked off to- 
ward the river. Harry 
had joined the Captain 
at a signal that he would 
like to speak to him, 
but he had not noticed 
his altered manner, and 
under the impression 
that he was in the best 
of spirits, was altogether 
unprepared for what he was about to hear. 

“ Harry,” began the Captain seriously, “ I have received the 
most distressing news within the last twenty-four hours.” 

“You don’t mean it, sir,” with evident surprise; “I thought 
matters were looking brighter for you every day. I have reason to 


‘ Harry,’ began the Captain seriously.” 


ii8 A LOYAL LITTLE RED-COAT. 

know that at least two of the signers of that insulting note you 
received are heartily ashamed of their behavior, and are actually on 
the look-out to atone for it in some fashion.” 

“ So I hear, and I am very grateful ; but all that good news is off- 
set by other news which has reached me this morning: some Tory 
friends of ours in South Carolina have just been brutally murdered 
by the Whigs,” and then the Captain excitedly narrated all the sad 
details of the tragedy so far as he knew them. 

Harry listened attentively. “It is certainly very dreadful,” he 
said at last sadly ; “ but,” he added with characteristic honesty, “ I 
have heard of some of the doings of those South Carolina Tories, 
and many of them, though possibly your friends were not among 
them, deserved harsh treatment. Captain Boniface.” 

“ Harry,” said the Captain abruptly, as though too busy with his 
own thoughts to have heard what was said, “ tell me frankly, do 
you suppose this community will ever again treat me as a decent 
member of society.?” 

“ Yes, Captain Boniface, I do, and I have something with me 
this moment that points that way,” and he handed him an unsealed 
envelope. It was addressed to the Captain, and he found it to con- 
tain a card of invitation, which read as follows : “ The Executive 
Committee of the Assembly respectfully informs the ladies and 
gentlemen of New York that a dance will be given on Monday 
next at the City Assembly Rooms, to begin precisely at five o’clock. 
Price of tickets, six shillings.” 

“ So they ask us to the Assembly, do they.?” said the Captain, 
glancing over it with evident surprise. “ They have contrived to 
leave us very little heart for dancing,” he added sadly. 

“But you will go,” urged Harry; “that invitation means even 
more than you suspect. It means, I think, that there is an organ- 
ized effort on foot to fully reinstate you, and some other Tories as 
well, whom they have treated so uncivilly.” 

“ So you think it implies all that .?” said the Captain, smiling 
incredulously at his enthusiasm. 

“ Yes, I’m sure it does, and you will go and take Mrs. Boniface 
and Miss Josephine; promise me, Captain.” 

The Captain did not reply at once, and Harry had time to realize 
that in his earnestness he was rather overstepping bounds. 


MORE ABOUT THE TEA-TAR TV. 119 

“ Of course I do not mean to ask you to promise me,” he 
stammered, coloring up to the roots of his hair, “ but you know 
what I mean. I am so anxious you should meet them half way.” 

“And you think we really ought to go? Why, a Dancing 
Assembly is the last thing in the world we care to have a hand in. 
But Mrs. Boniface will not stir a step when she hears about this 
wholesale murder of the Bentons, so that settles it.” 

And you feel that you must tell her T 

“ No, of course there is no must about it. I will think it over,” 
and then the Captain and Harry entered into a thorough discussion 
of the events that had led up to the sad consummation in South 
Carolina, and Harry had some facts at his command by which he 
succeeded in partially convincing the Captain that, in many cases, 
the Tories had been treated very much as they deserved. 

“ Well, Harry, you may be right, you may be right,” sighed the 
Captain, “ but that does not make the sacrifice of my old friends any 
easier to bear.” 

“ Not a whit, sir, I can understand that,” and then they started 
toward the house, for they could see that Mrs. Boniface and Frau 
Van Vleet were taking formal leave of each other. 

Twilight was settling down upon the river, and in those days, 
when it was the custom for fashionable dancing parties to begin at 
five o’clock, it was surely fitting that the same hour should conclude 
an unfashionable Dutch tea-party. Indeed, by the time darkness 
had fairly mastered the twilight, all the Van Vleets were snugly in 
bed, and only one light could be seen in the whole farm-house ; that 
was in the window of Aunt Frances’s gable room. There she sat 
reading, by the light of a plump little Dutch candle, certain familiar 
passages from some dearly loved books. She knew most of them 
by heart, and yet to much pondering of the noble, uplifting thoughts 
of these comforting little books was due much of that cheerful 
courage which was such a help to everybody. 

Meanwhile the “ Grayling” sailed “ up river” and “ cross river,” 
and reached her dock. She had one more name on her list of cabin 
passengers, however, than when she had sailed that morning, for 
how could Aunt Frances say “ No” when Hazel had come to her 
and begged that she would please be so very good as to let them 
have Starlight for over Sunday ? 


CHAPTER XIV. 


HAZEL HAS A CONVICTION. 



TARLIGHT,” said Hazel, seri- 
ously, next morning, as they sat 
side by side on the porch, “ IVe 
been thinking.” 

“ Yes,” said Starlight, dryly ; 
“most people do.” 

“ Pve been thinking. Star- 
light,” Hazel continued, “ that 
perhaps I am not doing quite 
right by Flutters.” 

“You’re doing mighty kind 
by him, I’m sure, and he thinks 
so, too. You’ve given him a 
home and clothes and plenty 
to eat, and all he has to do is 
to wait on your ladyship and 
take charge of the pony. I 
shouldn’t call that work, nor 
Flutters doesn’t, either. He 
says it is all just fun, and if 
there’s a finer family anywhere 
than the Bonifaces he’d like to 
see 'em, only he knows he never shall see ’em, because there isn’t 
such a family.” 

“ Are you making that up, Job Starlight 

“Well, I guess not. Flutters says something of that sort every 
time we’re left alone together. It seems as though his heart was so 
overflowing that he just had to ease it whenever he got a chance.” 


HAZEL HAS A CONVICTION. 


121 


“ Well, it’s certainly very pleasant to have him feel like that.” 

“Why, he just worships the ground — ” 

Starlight paused to shy a stone at a guinea hen that was en- 
croaching on one of the flower beds — “ your another treads on.” 

Starlight knew well enough that he ended this sentence quite 
differently from what Hazel had expected; but Hazel was wise 
enough not to show her surprise, and besides, if there was any wor- 
shipping to be done, she was about as glad to have Flutters worship 
the ground her mother trod on as that over which her little feet 
had travelled. 

“ No, but I’ve been thinking,” she said, resuming her own line 
of thought, “ that, for all we know. Flutters may be a regular little 
heathen, for I have an idea that the mulattoes are a very savage 
tribe. Did you ever hear him say a word about religion, or what 
he believed, and things like that T 

Starlight scratched his head, by way of helping his memory. 
“ Never a word, come to think of it.” 

“ \yell, now. Starlight, that is very strange, and I believe I’ll 
take him to church this very morning, and see how he acts.” 

“Yes, let’s,” said Starlight, taking most kindly to the project. 
“ If he’s never been in one, it will be awful fun to see how he takes 
it.” 

“ People don’t go to church to have awful fun. If that’s what 
you’re going for, you had better stay home.” 

Starlight clapped his hand over his mouth, as though to sup- 
press a most explosive giggle. “ My gracious. Hazel ! What has 
come over you ?” 

“Nothing has come over me, and you know it. I always love 
to go to church, and I love everything they do there; and I think 
it’s beautiful where they sing, ‘ Lord, have mercy upon us,’ after the 
commandments, and everybody keeps their head bowed.” 

Starlight did not answer. It was evident Hazel was launching 
upon one of what he called her “high-minded moods;” and, indeed, 
child though she was. Hazel did have times when she thought very 
deeply — times when the soul that was in her seemed to reach out 
after things eternal. It was not at all an unusual experience. It 
does not always need even ten round years to bring a child to a 
point of knowing for itself that there is a longing that this world, all 


122 


A LOYAL LITTLE RED-COAT. 


wonderful and beautiful though it be, does not fully satisfy. Such 
a knowing does not make a child less a child, or rob it of an iota of 
its joyousness, only sometimes lends a sweet and earnest depth to 
the little God-given life. But to matter-of-fact Job Starlight, it 
must be confessed that such a mood was not at all satisfactory. 
He did not comprehend it, and standing in awe of Hazel’s “high 
mindedness,” always endeavored to bring her down to his own 
level as quickly as possible by means of some diverting subject. 
This time he fortunately spied it in the shape of two prim little 
maidens, Prayer-Book in . hand, who came demurely walking, side 
by side, down the path that skirted the roadway. 

“Why, there come the M arberrys,” he remarked. 

“ Sure enough,” said Hazel, flying to the gate. “Are you going 
to church T she called over it. 

“Yes,” answered the little Marberrys simultaneously; indeed, 
they were a pair of simultaneous children. In the first place, they 
were twins ; in the second place, they were as alike in appearance 
as peas in a pod, and, in the third place, one little brain seemed to 
be the perfect fac-simile of the other. It was no uncommon thing 
for them to utter the same thought, in the same words, at the same 
.time ; and when this did not happen, one would generally echo 
what the other had said. They had been christened Mathilde and 
Clothilde ; but Milly and Tilly had been the outcome of that, and 
of course the similarity in the sound of the two names led to much 
confusion, since the initial letter was all that distinguished them. 

Hazel had come to the wise conclusion “that, so far as possible, 
it was best just to say things that would do for both, because, like 
as not, if you meant to say something to Milly — it not being so 
understood — Tilly would answer, and vice-versa.' But these two 
little Marberrys were warm friends of hers, and in those days, when 
so many people were estranged from the Bonifaces, she set a spe- 
cially high value upon their friendship. Not that the Marberrys 
were in any sense Tories ; only, as Dr. Marberry was rector of St. 
George’s, they felt it their duty, as a family, to be kind to every- 
body in the church. Besides, it would have caused the twins a real 
pang to have been parted from Hazel, for, as they frequently as- 
serted in the presence of less favored playmates, “Hazel Boniface 
was the cutest and nicest girl they had ever known.” 


HAZEL HAS A CONVICTION, 


123 


Starlight s announcement of “ Here come the Marberrys” had 
suggested to Hazel the idea of joining forces and all going along 
together. The children were delighted with the plan, as with any 
plan of hers, and sat down for a friendly chat with Starlight, while 
Hazel hurried away to summon Flutters. She found him feeding 
some withered clover heads to Gladys, as he sat comfortably on the 
top rail of the fence, enclosing the meadow where Gladys was allow- 
ed to disport herself on high days and holidays. She waited till she 
got close up to him, then she announced, “ Flutters, you are to go to 
church with me this morning.” 

“To church!” he said, surprised, for he had not heard her 
coming. 

“ Yes, go put on the other suit, and meet me at the gate 
quickly.” 

She did not say “ your other suit,” feeling, naturally, a certain 
sense of personal ownership, as far as Flutters’s outfit was concerned. 

“All right. Miss Hazel,” he answered, moving off. with the 
alacrity of a well-trained little servant. 

“ Perhaps you will not care to go with me, girls,” Hazel 
remarked, as she came down the path, some five minutes later, and 
looking very pretty in her dark red Sunday dress. “ You see I am 
going to take Flutters.” 

“ And why should we mind that?” chirped Milly Marberry in a 
high musical little key, and Tilly remarked, “Yes, why should we 
mind that T 

Because I have no idea how he will behave. When I told him 
just now that he was to go to church with me, he said, ‘ To church I’ 
as though he was very much surprised and had never been in one in 
his life.” 

“ I suppose he’ll sit still, though, if you tell him to,” said Milly. 

“ Of course he will not speak if — ” but Tilly’s sisterly echo 
was interrupted by a significant hush from Hazel, and the next 
second Flutters was with them. Then the little party set off, the 
boys ahead together, and the girls behind. 

“ Where does Flutters come from, anyway?” asked Tilly. 

“ Yes, where from T piped Milly. 

“ From England,” Hazel answered, softly, “ but he’s a mulatto.” 

“ A what ?” simultaneously. 


124 


A LOYAL LLTTLE LEE-COAT, 


“ A mulatto. They’re a kind of negro tribe/' 

“ Goodness gracious !” 

“ Gracious goodness !” 

“ Are the mulattoes wild and dangerous asked Milly, tremu- 
lously. 

“Yes, I believe so; but then, of course, Flutters isn’t so now. 
Civilization has changed him.” 

The Marberrys looked at Hazel with admiration ; these occa- 
sional big words of hers constituted one of her chief charms in their 
eyes. 

“ But the truth is,” Hazel continued, “ I do not know very 
much about Flutters. He does not seem to like to talk about his 
history, and mother says I have no right to pry into it.” 

“ I shouldn’t think anybody who had been wild and savage 
could speak such good English,” said Tilly, thoughtfully. 

“ Neither should I,” said Milly. 

“ Well, that is queer,” and Hazel looked puzzled. “ I hadn’t 
thought of that ; but I’m certain his grandfather, if not his father, 
must have been wild and savage. I’m very sure the mulattoes used 
to be very ferocious.” 

“ Where do the mulattoes live ?” asked the Marberrys. 

“ I don’t know,” was Hazel’s truthful answer. The fact was, as 
you have discovered, Flazel did not know what she was talking 
about. She had a trick of mounting an impression, and then of 
giving rein to her imagination and letting it run away with her, so 
that the first thing she knew she was telling you something she 
really quite believed was fact, but which was nothing of the sort. 
As a result she was sometimes credited with fibbing, and got into 
many an unnecessary scrape, but, you may be sure, Mrs. Boniface 
was doing all that she could to correct this unfortunate tendency. 

Meantime the boys walked ahead, conversing with no little 
earnestness as to the comparative merits of two tiny sloop yachts, 
one of which was taking shape under Starlight’s hand, and the other 
under Flutters’s, and whose same comparative merits were to be put 
to the test, when completed, by a race on the waters of the Collect. 
At this point in their walk a turn of the road brought St. George’s 
into sight. 

“ Ever been to church. Flutters Starlight asked, quite casually. 


HAZEL HAS A CONVICTION, 


125 


“ Oh, yes, often.” 

“ Episcopal T 

“Ye ep, was Flutters s unceremonious answer; “but how large 
are you going to make your foresail T not willing to be diverted from 
the all-engrossing subject. 

“ I shall give her all the sail she can carry, you may be certain.” 
Starlight did not intend to furnish this rival yachtsman with any 
exact measurements. And so they talked on till they reached the 
little stone church, where service had already commenced. The 
Marberrys walked straight up to their pew, the very front one, but 
before they reached it each little face flushed crimson. At one and 
the same moment their two pairs of blue eyes met their father’s, for 
he was leading the General Confession, and did not need to have 
them upon his book. Judging from the crimson on their faces, the 
look must have said, “ There is no excuse for this, my little daugh- 
ters ; I am ashamed that you should be so late.” 

Hazel and Starlight and Flutters had the Boniface pew to them- 
selves, but Hazel allowed Starlight to precede them into it, while 
she detained Flutters in the vestibule for a little seasonable advice. 
She had intended to administer it slowly and forcibly by the way. 
Now she had to compress it all into one hurried little moment. In 
her excitement she seized hold of Flutters’s brown wrist, as she whis- 
pered, hurriedly, “ Flutters, this is a church, where people come to 
worship. You will have to sit very still and not speak, only get 
up and sit down when I do, because part of the time it’s wrong to 
sit down. So, Flutters, watch me very closely. I will find you the 
place in the Prayer-Book, but you had better not say the things 
that are written there, even if you can read them, ’cause they’re 
probably things you do not understand at all, and don’t know any- 
thing about, so it would be best not to say you believed them. 
You can sing the hymns, though ; there won’t be any harm in that, 
only sing very softly, for fear you don’t get the tune right. Now 
that is all, I believe,” putting her finger to her lip in a meditative 
way, and with an anxious frown on her face, as if fearing she had 
overlooked some important instruction. “ Yes, that is all ; now fol- 
low me in and Flutters following her, took his seat with a most 
decorous air, and without staring about with such gaping astonish- 
ment, as might, perhaps, be looked for in a boy of fourteen, who had 


126 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT. 


never seen the interior of a church before, so that Hazel at once felt 
much relieved. Her first duty, of course, was to lurnish him with the 
proper page in the Prayer-Book, and her second to anticipate all 
irregularities in the order of service, by taking the book from his 



“It’s the Eighteenth Sunday, I think.” 


hands in ample time to supply him with the right place at the right 
moment. Now it must be confessed that all this was accomplished 
by Hazel in rather an officious and patronizing manner, but, unfor- 
tunately for her, there came a time when she herself was at a loss. 


HAZEL HAS A CONVICTION. 


127 


She did not know which Sunday it was after Trinity. Flutters didy 
and seeing her confusion anticipated Dr. Marberry by whispering, 
“ It's the eighteenth Sunday ^ I think'.' 

Hazel thrust Flutters’s Prayer-Book back into his hand, giving 
him one look, and such a look ! It was dreadful to think that a 
thorough-going little church-woman could ever look like that, much 
less while the service itself was actually in progress. 

Flutters felt “ queer.” He saw how much there was in that look 
of Hazel’s, and wondered if he had been greatly to blame in the 
matter. Starlight, of course, witnessed the whole proceeding, and 
heard Flutters’s whisper (as did every one else in the neighborhood), 
which betrayed his familiarity with the service, and Starlight him- 
self wondered how he managed to be quite so well up on the 
subject. 

But it was an awfully good joke on Hazel. When they had 
been discussing the matter, and he had said, “ It would be awful fun 
to see how Flutters would act in church, provided he had never 
been there,” Hazel had, of course, been quite right in saying that 
“ People did not go to church to have awful fun but he could not 
help thinking that he had had a little fun all the same, only at 
Hazel’s expense, and not Flutters’s. 


CHAPTER XV. 



FLUTTERS COMES TO THE FRONT. 


HERE were five of them abreast. 
The Marberrys, Hazel, Starlight, 
and Flutters, but no one was 
saying a word. The Marberrys 
had twice religiously tried to 
start up matters, but had failed 
utterly, and new they were anx- 
iously bothering their little minds 
with the same question, so often 
reiterated by the Van Vleet par- 
rot, of “ Oh, dear, what can the 
matter be ?” Starlight was chuck- 
ling inwardly, like the inconsid- 
erate youngster that he was. 
Hazel was very angry, as she 
imagined with just cause, and 
Flutters was inwardly fluttering, 
almost outwardly, in fact, so sorry was he to have offended his 
adored little mistress. If she would only say something. It was 
not his place to speak first, but he feared he would have to, for 
to his sensitive nature the silence was unbearable. Fortunately, 
however, just at this point, Hazel’s indignation found vent ; she 
came to a sudden stand-still, and although naught save the one word 
Flutters /” escaped her, it doubled the five-abreast parallel line 
into a circle in less than a second. 

“ What have I done. Miss Hazel ?” 

“ Done !” — then impressively lowering her voice — “ you have 


FLUTTERS COMES TO THE FRONT 


129 


lied, Flutters” (the Marberrys winced). “ Yes, I know it is a dread- 
ful word, but there is no other word for it.” 

“ What did I lie about Y' Body-servant or no. Flutters knew 
when his little mistress was overstepping all legitimate bounds. 

“ You told me you had never been to church, and let me find all 
the places for you, when you knew all about it just as well as I 
did,” and the little mistress was so greatly excited, that she felt very 
much afraid she should break right down and cry, which would cer- 
tainly prove a most undignified proceeding. 

“ Did I tell you. Miss Hazel, that I had never been to church .?” 
Flutters was able to speak calmly and was astonished at his own 
self-control, but then he knew he was in the right, and calmness 
comes easier when you know that. Hazel grew uncomfortable un- 
der Flutters’s direct gaze. She had hardly expected this courageous 
self-defence. Come to think of it, had he actually said he had 
never been to church. Could it be, she wondered, that her imagina- 
tion had led her off on another wild chase in the wrong direction .? 
Yes, it could, foolish little Hazel, though you yourself are not yet 
ready to admit it. 

“ Perhaps you did not tell me so. Flutters,” Hazel answered, “ but 
you let me think it, which was very wrong and mean of you.” 

“ Look out. Hazel,” chimed in Starlight, shaking his head signifi- 
cantly, “ ten to one you never gave him a chance to say a word 
about it. You have an awful, rushing way, sometimes, of taking 
things for granted.” 

So Starlight was siding against her too, and Hazel looked 
toward the Marberrys for sympathy ; but they were so ignorant of 
the facts of the case, and always so kindly disposed toward that 
little waif, Flutters, that both of them wore the most neutral ex- 
pression possible. 

Flutters’s face flushed gratefully under Starlight’s warm champi- 
onship. 

“ No, Miss Hazel,” he said, slowly, “you never gave me a chance 
to tell you, and until you caught hold of my wrist in the vestibule, 
and told me what I must do and what I mustn’t, I did not know 
that you even thought I had never been to church.” 

“ Didn’t you really ? Well, that’s very queer,” for when an idea 
was firmly implanted in Hazel’s mind, she felt as though every one 


130 A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT, 

ought, somehow or other, to be intuitively aware of it. However, 
she was going to try to be reasonable, and so she descended from a 
tone of evident displeasure into one of grieved forbearance. 



The Walk Home from Church. 


“ But, Flutters, if what you say is true” — Flutters straightened up 
under this insinuation, but unbent right away as Hazel wisely 
added, “ and of course it is, then why, when I found the first place 


FL UTTERS COMES TO THE FRONT 


131 

in the Prayer-Book for you, did you not whisper, ‘You need not 
bother, Miss Hazel, I know about the Prayer-Book,’ or something 
like that, instead of letting me go on and find place after place for 
you ?” 

For a moment Flutters seemed at a loss what to answer, then 
looking her frankly in the face, he said, with charming simplicity, “ I 
thought it would be more respectful not to say anything ; and 
better to let you, being my little mistress, do just as you pleased 
without interfering.” 

Hazel showed she was touched by this confession ; but Star- 
light could not resist the temptation to add, “ besides, I warrant you, 
you told Flutters not to speak, when you collared him there in the 
vestibule.” 

“ Yes, you did. Miss Hazel,” said Flutters, truthfully. 

“That maybe,” Hazel admitted with much dignity, “ but. Job 
Starlight, I never collared anybody, if you please.” 

“ Don’t be touchy, Hazel. You know what I mean.” 

All this while the children had stood in a little circle right in 
the middle of the road, and more than one passer-by had looked on 
with an amused smile, wondering what was the cause of so much ev- 
ident excitement. The Marberrys had noticed this, and now that 
matters were cooling down a trifle, suggested that they should walk 
on, so as not to attract so much attention. So they walked on, but 
of course they talked on too, and although Hazel was fast relenting 
toward Flutters, she was not quite ready to cease hostilities. One 
or two matters still required explanation. “ Look here. Flutters,” 
she said, “if you thought it was more respectful not to say any- 
thing, why didn’t you keep quiet ; and there’s another thing I 
should like to have you tell me, and that is, how did you know it 
was the eighteenth T 

“ Miss Hazel, when I saw you did not know what Sunday it 
was, I thought that as I happened to know, I ought to tell 
you.” 

“ Oh, that was it ; but. Flutters, people don’t just happen to 
know things. They generally know how they came to know 
them.” 

Flutters looked troubled, and the Marberrys and Starlight felt 
very sorry for him, and wished Hazel would stop. But Hazel 


132 


A LOYAL LITTLE RED-COAT, 


wouldn’t. That’s one of the troubles with strong and independent 
natures, no matter whether they belong to big or little people. 
They feel everything so deeply, and get so wrought up, that on they 
go in their impetuosity hurting people’s feelings sometimes, and do- 
ing lots of mischief. To be strong and independent and to know 
where “ to stop,” that is fine ; but Hazel had not yet learned that 
happy combination. But Hazel’s heart was all right ; she wanted 
above everything else in the world to grow some day to be a truly 
noble woman, and there is not much need for worry when any little 
body really hopes and intends to be that sort of a big body. But 
you need not think that while I have been saying this little word 
behind Hazel’s back (which, by the way, is not meant at all unkind- 
ly), that you have been missing any conversation on the part of our 
little church-goers. There hasn’t been any conversation for ever so 
many seconds. Hazel is waiting for Flutters to speak, and Flutters 
is getting ready. At last he attacks the subject in hand, in short, 
quick little sentences, as if it was not easy to say what must be said. 

“ Miss Hazel, when I was at home I used often to go to church. 
I had a little Prayer-Book of my own. Somebody gave it to me ; 
somebody that I loved. When I was in the circus I kept my 
Prayer-Book with me. Every Sunday I read it, from love of the 
somebody. Once in a great while when we would put up near a 
church I used to get leave to go to it I went the very Sunday be- 
fore I left the circus, I went to that very church where we have 
been to-day. I sat in the back seat, and I heard their father 
preach (indicating Milly and Tilly). It was a lovely sermon ’bout 
bearing things. That was five weeks ago, and that was the thir- 
teenth Sunday after Trinity, so I calculated up to to-day, and, Miss 
Hazel, when I ran away from the circus and dared not go back 
there were only two things I minded about — the Prayer-Book and 
old Bobbin. To run away from a dear little book that you 
loved, that’s been a real comfort to you, when you hadn’t scarce 
anybody to turn to — why, it seems just like running away from a 
dear old friend.” 

So that was the explanation of it all. Even Starlight felt 
touched by Flutters’s narration, while actual tears stood in the little 
Marberrys’ eyes. Hazel felt humiliated, an uncommon, but most 
beneficial sensation for that hot-headed little woman. 


FLUTTERS COMES TO THE FRONT 


133 


“Who gave you that Prayer-Book, Flutters?” asked the Mar- 
berrys — being blessed with less tact than sympathy. 

“ Flutters would have told us if he had wished us to know,” said 
Hazel. And that considerate remark completely re-established the 
old friendly relations between Flutters and herself, and then for a 
while the five children trudged along in silence. Four out of the five 
were probably pondering over all that Flutters had told them, and 
wishing that they knew more about him. Flutters, feeling greatly 
relieved, was turning over in his mind a perplexing question sug- 
gested by something the Rector had said in his sermon that 
morning, for he was a thoughtful little fellow, and when a matter 
bothered him was not content to dismiss it without settling it to his 
own satisfaction. 

“ Do folks believe.^” he said, after the manner of one who has 
slowly thought himself up to the point of putting a question, “ do 
folks believe that God makes everything happen ?” 

“ Of course they do,” said Milly Marberry. Tilly pressed her 
lips firmly together and nodded “yes,” in a way that meant there 
was no doubt whatever on the subject. 

“Well, suppose a poor woman had just one little boy, and the 
little boy took the scarlet fever and died, did God make that 
happen ?” 

“ Yes, He did,” replied Milly and Tilly together, feeling, perhaps, 
that, as daughters of the Rector, the answering of such a question 
belonged to them. Starlight and Hazel willingly kept silent. They 
thought Flutters was leading up to something, and preferred not to 
commit themselves. 

“ Well, then,” said Flutters, but not irreverently, “ Fd like to 
know what He did it for.” 

Milly and Tilly showed their surprise at this question, but did 
not at once reply, trying, perhaps, to decide what answer their good 
father would make under similar circumstances. 

“ Perhaps God saw the little boy would not grow up to be a 
good man,” Milly ventured, feeling sure she had heard something 
like that said. 

“ Perhaps,” said Tilly, for occasionally the twins did launch out 
on independent lines of thought, “ perhaps she loved the little boy 
too much, and so God took him to make her trust more just in Him.” 


134 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT. 


Flutters waited a moment, as though to consider matters; then 
he said, seriously, “No, I do not believe what you say at all. I 
believe the little boy caught the scarlet fever from somebody, and 
just died because he wasn’t strong enough to get over it.” 

“ I don’t believe it’s right to think like that,” Hazel volunteered, 
for the Marberrys looked very much shocked, “ it’s not believing in 
God at all.” 

Now Flutters had not. set out upon this discussion without first 
having thought it out pretty clearly for himself, and so he was ready 
to answer — 

“ You are mistaken, I think. Miss Hazel,” with the same little air 
of respect he always assumed in speaking to her, “ because I believe 
in God just as much as any boy could, and yet I think that. I 
think God lets things happen instead of making them. He lets 
sickness and trouble come into the world, and so the sickness and 
trouble find the people out, and sickness kills them if their bodies 
are weak, and trouble kills them if their hearts and heads are, 
and—” 

“ But, Flutters,” interrupted Starlight, “ don’t you believe God 
watches over people and cares for ’em 

“Why of course I do. Starlight. If I hadn’t thought that I don’t 
know what I would have done sometimes; but this is what I think 
— I think He watches over us by helping us to bear things, and to 
get the best out of ’em, and although I’m not very old. I’m old 
enough to know that sometimes there is more good in a trouble- 
some thing than in a thing that isn’t troublesome at all. The 
people who are the kindest are often the people who have had the 
most trouble.” 

“ Well,” said Tilly Marberry, with considerable censure in her 
tone, “ I never heard a little boy talk like this.” 

“Neither did I,” sighed Milly, “and I should say such things 
ought to be left to grown-up people.” 

“Well, then,” Flutters replied, “thinking ’bout things ought 
to be left to grown-up people, too, but it isn’t. I may think 
different I’m grown up, but I don’t believe I’ll ever think 

harder than I do now, and I can’t help it either.” 

Meanwhile Hazel had been ransacking her brain for a half- 
remembered text, and now she had it. “ What do you make out of 


FLUTTERS COMES TO THE FRONT. 135 

that verse about the Lord chastening whom He loves?” she 
asked. 

For the moment Flutters looked puzzled. The Marberrys 
signalled each other by elevating their eyebrows as to the meaning 
of this last big word of Hazel’s, and asked, simultaneously, “ What’s 
chastening .?” Then for the moment Hazel looked puzzled, but 
Starlight came to her rescue. 

“ I think it’s taking away from a fellow lots of people whom he 
loves. Having his mother die, and then his father, and then his 
little sister, and things like that.” 

This remark of Starlight’s flashed the light again in upon Flut- 
ters’s mind, and he found to his glad surprise that he was thor- 
oughly prepared to answer Hazel after all; but he began by asking 
Starlight a question. 

“ But why, Starlight, does the Lord do that, do you think 

“ Why — so as to make a fellow resigned. I think that’s what 
they call it. To make him just give up his own will.” 

“ Excuse me,” said Flutters, with the air of one whose con- 
victions are very strong, “ but I don’t believe that either. I don’t 
believe the Lord would take my father and mother and sister 
out of the world just because He loved me and wanted to make me 
better. I don’t believe I’m important enough for that, nor anybody 
else. If they all died close together I should think it was because 
God’s time had come for them, quite outside of me, and that then 
the thing for me to do, the thing that He meant, was just to bear it 
as bravely as I could.” 

This was a long speech for Flutters, but the children were 
sufficiently interested to follow every word of it, and Hazel asked, 
when Flutters ceased, “ But then what does the chastening verse 
mean ? It’s in the Bible, and I suppose you believe the Bible 

“ Of course I believe it, but I know chastening doesn’t mean 
anything like that. Perhaps it means letting all sorts of bother- 
some things come so as to have you get the best of them. A 
person what had never had any bother wouldn’t be much of a 
person, I suppose.” 

“ Well, we have had a talk,” said Starlight, for at this point the 
discussion seemed to come to a natural close ; and besides, they had 
almost reached the Boniface gate. A moment later the Marberrys 


136 


A LOYAL LLTTLE LEE-COAT. 


took an affectionate leave of Hazel, with a “ Good-bye” to Starlight 
and Flutters, and trudged on to the rectory, half a mile farther up 
the road, wondering, perhaps, if what Flutters had said had been 
wrong, and provided they could remember it, if they ought not to 
tell their father. 

“ Heigh-ho !” sighed Hazel, carefully putting away her Sunday 
cloak and hat, “ and to think that I thought the mulattoes were a 
savage tribe! Why, really, I believe I never knew a boy who 
seemed to think so right down into a thing as Flutters.” 




CHAPTER XVI. 


COLONEL HAMILTON “ TAKES TO” HARRY. 



RIGHT and early on the 
Monday succeeding the 
Van Vleet tea-party, 
Harry Starlight set out 
for his call upon Colonel 
Hamilton. It proved to 
be a clear, bracing morn- 
ing, the kind of a morn- 
ing to inspire hope in 
hearts five times as old as 
Harry’s, only fortunate- 
ly there are some hearts 
that never grow old at 
all, and to whom hope is 
just as true and beautiful 
at sixty as sixteen. The 
moment he closed the 
door of the kitchen be- 
hind him, he drew one 
great, deep breath, as 
though longing to take 
in, in a permanent way 
if possible, all the exhil- 
aration of the invigorat- 
ing air, all the marvellous 
beauty of the wonderful 
out-of-door world. There 
had been a heavy frost 


the night before, but almost the first flash of sunrise had trans- 


138 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT. 


formed it into an army of glistening drops, save where here and 
there, under the protecting chill of sombre shadows, the grass-blades 
still were cased in sheaths of crystal. The river was gray and white- 
capped, for the west wind would not leave it still enough to reflect 
the cloudless blue overhead, and the “ Gretchen” tugged at her 
chain with various little creaks and groans, as though an anchor 
and a furled sail were more than sail-boat nature could endure when 
such a breeze was blowing. Indeed, as Harry freed her from her 
moorings, she fairly seemed to bound out into the river with the 
keen enjoyment of a creature alive in every part. It is hard to 
picture that East River as it looked a hundred years ago, with 
wooded and grass-grown banks in place of wharves and warehouses, 
and with only an occasional sail, where to-day the great, unwieldy 
ferry-boats plow from shore to shore, and an army of smaller craft 
steam noisily hither and thither. Now and then Harry would pass 
a market-boat loaded to the water s edge with a tempting array of 
vegetables, and rowed by a marketwoman in her close-fitting Dutch 
cap, who would either wish him a cheery good-morning in matronly 
fashion, or bend lower over her oars, as became a young maiden. 
Half reluctantly did Harry hear the “Gretchen’s” keel scrape the 
pebbly shore, and exchange the breezy breadth of the riv^er for the 
city street, notwithstanding that street led straight up to Colo- 
nel Hamilton’s office. Then, somehow or other, he did not feel 
quite so buoyant as at the start, for hope has a trick of wavering a 
little, as she actually nears the verge of any decision. What if some 
one had already secured the place.? What if the Colonel should 
not take to him .? for Harry had great faith in and great respect for 
what may be called “ taking to people.” 

It so happened that he found only a boy in the Colonel’s office, 
a very dark little specimen of the negro race, who was brushing and 
dusting away in a manner that said very plainly, “ I’s behin’ time dis 
mornin’,” which, by the way, was the rule and not the exception in 
the life of lazy little John Thomas. 

“What time does Colonel Hamilton usually come in.?” asked 
Harry, when he saw that the boy was by far too busy to pay any 
attention to him. 

“’Long any minit; dat’s how I’s so flustered,” he replied, breath- 
lessly, and with that sort of haste which invariably makes waste, he 


COLONEL HAMILTON TAKES TO^' HARRY, 139 

succeeded in upsetting" all the contents of a generous scrap-basket 
exactly in the middle of the office floor. “Glory me !” was his one 
inelegant exclamation, and, dropping on to his knees, he began 
punching the accumulation of trash back into the basket, but with 
an energy that landed half of it upon the floor again. 

“ Look here, Fll tend to that,” laughed Harry. “You see to your 
other work.” John Thomas looked up surprised, but seeing the offer 
was made in good faith, took Harry at his word, and flew to the 
office washstand, which was sadly in need of attention. 

Just at this point there was a step in the hall, and glancing up 
from his homely, self-appointed task, Harry’s eyes met those of 
Colonel Hamilton, while the color flushed over his face. 

“Well, my young friend,” said the Colonel, evidently much 
amused, “who set you at that work.^^” 

“ I was waiting for you, sir,” said Harry, putting the basket at one 
side, “ and as your boy seemed to have been delayed, I was trying to 
lend a hand.” 

“ Very kind of you, sir ; and as John has a way of being delayed 
every morning, he would no doubt like to make a permanent en- 
gagement with you.” 

“ I had rather you would do that, sir,” was on Harry’s lips, but he 
feared it might sound familiar ; but Colonel Hamilton seemed to 
read his thoughts. 

“ Possibly you came to see about making an engagement with 
me,” he said, kindly, looking for the moment most intently at Harry 
in a way that showed he was mentally taking his measure. Mean- 
while he had hung up his coat and hat, and dropped into a high- 
backed, uncomfortable and unpainted wooden chair, very different 
from the upholstered, revolving contrivances that we find in offices 
nowadays. 

“ Yes, sir,” said Harry, in answer to the Colonel’s question, and 
still standing; “ I heard that you wanted a clerk, and I should be 
very grateful if you would let me see if I could fill the place.” 

“ What is your name.?” 

“ Harry Starlight Avery, if you wish it in full, sir.” 

“Will you be seated, Mr. Avery .?” said the Colonel, with his 
habitual kindly courtesy, whereupon John Thomas flourished a be- 
draggled feather brush over a dusty chair — the same one upon which 


140 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT. 


Hazel had sat during her recent important interview — and placed it 
near the Colonel’s, with all the importance of a drum-major on 
parade. 

“ I have heard the name of Starlight before,” Colonel Hamilton 
said thoughtfully, “ but where I cannot remember.” Then, and as 
though he had no time to devote to mere rumination at that hour 
of the morning, he asked, “ Are you a native of New York, Mr. 
Avery T 

“ No, sir ; my home is in New London.” 

“ Then you are a long ways from it now” (for distances were dis- 
tances in those days) ; “ how does that happen T 

“ I enlisted on a privateer,” Harry answered, coloring slightly. 

“ So that is how,” and the Colonel gave him the benefit of 
another scrutinizing look. 

“ Have you ever had a position in a lawyer’s office 

“ No, sir; I am sorry to say I haven’t; but it’s just the sort of 
position I have always wanted. Of course you would have to tell 
me just about everything at the start, but not more than once, I 
hope, sir.” 

This is the right sort of spirit, thought the Colonel, beginning to 
run through some papers on a letter-file, for, as usual, he had a very 
busy day before him. 

“ How long ago did you enlist on the privateer making a little 
memorandum of some other matters on a sheet of paper as he 
spoke. 

“ Nearly two years ago.” 

“ How long were you aboard of her.?” 

“ Only a month, sir.” 

“ And where were you the remainder of the time T 

“ On the ‘ Jersey,’ sir.” 

There was no dividing of attention now, and the Colonel laid 
aside the quill pen he had just filled with ink. 

“ Do you mean to say you were a prisoner aboard of her .?” 

“ Yes, sir.” 

“ For nearly two years T 

“ Yes, sir.” 

“ That is enough for me. Any poor fellow that has braved the 
horrors of that den for even a month ought to have the best sort of 


COLONEL HAMILTON TAKES TO^' JLAEEY. 


141 

a chance. I will engage you on the spot, Mr. Avery. If you have 
been a ^Jersey’ prisoner, that is enough for me. I am willing to try 
a ‘green hand,’ who has had to endure that experienee.” 

“You are very kind. Colonel Hamilton,” and Harry’s grateful 
appreciation showed plainly in his face. 

“ Could you stay to-day,” asked the Colonel, “ and let me set you 
right to work at some copying } I think we can come to a satisfac- 
tory arrangement about terms when I am not so hurried.” 

Of course Harry stayed — stayed through one of the busiest and 
happiest days of his life; and not until twilight had long settled 
down on the river did he step aboard of the “ Gretchen” and set sail 
for the old Van Vleet Farm. 

When the wind is right in your favor, and you have little to do 
but mind your helm, you have a fine chance for a quiet think — that 
is, if you are any sort of a sailor; and Harry improved the oppor- 
tunity and thought hard — thought of all that the day’s good fortune 
might mean to him : of ability to pay his own way for the first time 
in his life ; of a little money to be sent off now and, then to the 
younger brothers in New London, and then, in a vague sort of a 
way, of a home of his own some day. Meantime all the while there 
would be the constant daily companionship with Colonel Hamilton 
himself, who seemed to him (as indeed to many another, and in the 
face, too, of his extreme youthfulness) at onee the noblest, the 
kindest, and by far the greatest man he had ever met. What a pity, 
he thought, that he should have sided against Aunt Frances ! 

But of one thing Harry felt sure, which was that he had 
certainly “taken to” Colonel Alexander Hamilton; and there was 
another thing just as sure whieh he did not know about, and that 
was that the Colonel had deeidedly “taken to” Harry. 


CHAPTER XVII. 


IN THE LITTLE GOLD GALLERY. 



^HE night for the first 
Dancing Assembly had 
come, and old Peter, 
John Thomas’s father 
and the janitor of the 
Assembly room, had 
done more work in the 
last week than in all the 
whole five months be- 
tween the two seasons 
of social gayety. In an 
hour now it would be 
time for the guests to 
arrive, and, arrayed in 
his best coat and knee- 
breeches, and with noth- 
ing further to do, Peter 
sat on a three-legged 
stool at one end of the 
hall, surveying his work 
with evident satisfac- 
tion. 

Presently there was 
the sound of several 
pairs of feet on the flight of stairs that led up to the Assembly 
rooms, and Peter, craning his neck, tried to make out who it might 
be without taking the trouble to get up, for his old knees were very 
stiff from the unwonted exertions of the week. 


IN THE LITTLE GOLD GALLED V. 


143 


Who it might be was quickly determined, for in a flash there 
stood before him what seemed to him a veritable crowd of chil- 
dren, though in point of fact there were only the two Marberrys, 
Hazel, Starlight, and Flutters. 

“ What you chilluns doin’ heah ? Dis heah ain’t no place fur 
chilluns. You better go right ’long home agin, I reckon.” 

Peter tried to speak gruffly, but they were not in the least in- 
timidated, knowing that it was all assumed. 

“ Peter, we have a great favor to ask of you,” said Hazel, who 
seemed to be the ringleader of the little party. 

“’Tain’t no sort o’ use. Miss Hazel; can’t ’low it no how;” for 
Peter knew well enough what the favor was; “ if I let you chilluns 
into dat gall’ry, you’ll keep up such a snickerin’ and gigglin’, you’ll 
’sturb the whole Assembly. No, Miss Hazel; can’t t’ink of it; 
can’t ’low it no how.” 

“ Peter,” said Hazel, looking at him very searchingly, “ are you 
going to let anybody in there ?” 

“Not a soul. Miss Hazel — dat is, not a soul ’ceptin’ my John 
Thomas.” 

“Ah! I thought so,” said Hazel, exultingly ; “and it isn’t fair, 
Peter, to do for Thomas what you won’t do for us. We’ve come 
all the way into town just to see the dancing, ’cause mother said 
she was sure there wouldn’t be any objection to our peeping 
through the gallery railing.” 

“ Did she say dat, sure ’nuff. Miss Hazel And Peter put his 
head on one side, and looked at Hazel in a very suspicious man- 
ner. 

“Yes, she did,” said Tilly Marberry, coming to the rescue; “I 
heard her myself ; and, Peter, we’ll promise not to snicker.” 

“ Nor giggle, either,” said Tilly’s other self. 

“ Which of you is which said Peter, slowly looking at the 
twins with knitted eyebrows. 

“ Oh, Peter, please don’t stop to bother ’bout that now,” pleaded 
Hazel, impatient of any digression from the main point; “but you 
wz// let us in, won’t you.?” whereupon the other children chimed in 
with such imploring entreaties that the old janitor relented, and, 
getting on to his feet with an evident twinge in his rheumatic 
knees, felt in his coat-tail pocket for the coveted gallery keys. The 


144 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT. 


good deed had its reward then and there, in the beaming and 
grateful faces of the troupe of little beggars. 

The gallery in question was a sort of balcony, projecting from 
the wall at one end of the hall, midway between floor and ceiling, 
and to which access was had by a steep little spiral stairway. This 
gallery was intended for the musicians only ; but between its gilded, 
bulging front and the part of the platform on which they sat was a 
space where half a dozen children might be comfortably accommo- 
dated. More than once, when some reception or dance was in prog- 
ress, Hazel, with a few chosen friends in her train, had begged her 
way into this most desirable retreat, and that was why Peter knew 
“ what was up” the moment he saw her. 

When they entered the little gallery, they found John Thomas 
there before them, complacently installed in the most desirable 
place ; but they were far too thankful to have gotten in at all to 
grudge him his privileged position. 

It was a funny sight to see the little company established in a 
row behind the heavy gilded stucco work, which completely con- 
cealed them, yet offered such convenient little loop-holes and cran- 
nies, from which everything going on on the floor below could be 
plainly viewed. To be sure, the arrangement of the platform obliged 
them all to sit tailor fashion — rather a constrained position for those 
unaccustomed to it — but what did it matter about one’s legs and 
back when one’s eyes were to be feasted with lovely ladies and 
gallant gentlemen and the music they were to dance to would be 
ringing in one’s ears. 

“ Doesn’t the hall look lovely T said Hazel, when at last she 
had adjusted her lower extremities as comfortably as circumstances 
would admit. 

“ Lovely !” answered the Marberrys, each with a sigh of deep 
appreciation, for it had not been an easy thing for them to gain per- 
mission to accompany Hazel, and this was to be their first intro- 
duction to the glories of a dancing assembly. 

“ How everything shines!” said Flutters, quite lost in admiration 
of the glittering brass sconces, with their bevelled mirrors and 
beautiful red candles, and wondering greatly how any floor could 
ever be brought to such a high state of polish. 

“’Course it shines,” said John Thomas. “It ought to shine. 


IN THE LITTLE GOLD GALLED V, 145 

My father hasn’t been reachin’ and rubbin’, and kneelin’ and 
polishin’ fur free weeks fur nufihn, I reckon.” 

“ Did you help him?” asked Flutters, with admiration. 

“ No, sah, I did not. I hasn’t no time for polishin’. I assists in 
Colonel Hamilton’s law office,” and John Thomas proudly drew him- 



I ASSISTS Colonel Hamilton,’ John Thomas repeated. 


self up till his woolly head grazed the ridge of the gallery rail above 

him. , 

“What,” said Starlight, “ are you the boy m Colonel Hamilton s 

office ?” . 

“ I assists Colonel Hamilton,” John Thomas repeated, not being 


146 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT. 


willing to bring himself down to Starlight’s offensive way of putting 
things. 

“ Yes, I’ve heard about said Starlight, with a mischievous 

twinkle in his eye. 

“ W’at you heard. I’d like to know !” 

“John Thomas,” came a voice from below, “don’t let me hear 
anoder word from you dis ebenin’, else home you go to mammy 
right smart, I can tell you, and de oder chilluns long wid you too.” 
Old Peter had shambled out to the middle of the floor to take one 
more satisfactory view of things in general, and just in time to hear 
John Thomas’s excited tones. His words had the desired effect; 
the little gallery instantly relapsed into absolute silence, the six 
children fairly holding their breath for fear of the threatened banish- 
ment. People were beginning to come now. A few gentlemen 
were already on the floor, and the musicians, who had taken their 
places on the gallery platform, were drawing instruments, which 
would look funny enough to-day, from the depths of clumsy green 
baize bags, and beginning to “ tune up.” 

“ Tell me w’at you heard T demanded John Thomas of Starlight, 
as soon as he dared to speak again. 

“Oh, John Thomas, please don’t !” begged Milly Marberry, put- 
ting her little hand most beseechingly on his sleeve; “we’ve never 
been to an Assembly before. We’d cry our eyes out if your father 
sent us home.” 

John Thomas yielded to this entreaty, but sullenly, as though 
he meant to have it out with Starlight some day or other. Any 
slur upon his character was just one thing that that young gentle- 
man was determined not to endure, and the sooner Job Starlight 
and the rest of the world came to that wise conclusion, why, so 
much the better for everybody concerned — at least, so thought John 
Thomas. 

It was a pity that at the commencement of the Assembly Hazel, 
Milly, and Tilly could not have been in two places at once, for 
while only an occasional couple strolled on to the dancing floor, the 
dressing-rooms were crowded. There would have been a peculiar 
pleasure for those little lovers of finery to see the pretty toilets 
gradually emerge from the concealment of long cloaks and shawls, 
and to have studied the charming vanities of peak-toed, high-heeled 


IN THE LITTLE GOLD GALLERY. 


147 


little slippers as the protecting pattens were shaken off into the 
hands of maids, upon their knees before their “ ladies.” But at last 
the Assembly floor offered more attractions than the dressing-room, 
and a long line of couples, constantly reinforced by new arrivals, 
were promenading in stately fashion around the hall. 

“There come the Van Vleets,” exclaimed Starlight, as Miss 
Francesca and Miss Heide entered, each on the arm of an escort. 

‘'And if there isn’t Miss Pauline,” whispered. Tilly Marberry ; 
“ does she dance ?” 

“ Dance !” said Starlight ; “ well, I guess you’ll think so when 
you see her. She’s just as graceful as a fairy.” 

“ She’s just as queer as a fairy, too,” remarked Flutters. “ I 
wouldn’t care to be the one to dance with her ; there’d be no telling 
what she might fly off and do next.” 

“ It’s very distressing about Miss Pauline,” said Hazel, reprov- 
ingly ; “ and. Flutters, you have no occasion to speak like that.” 
Hazel always seemed to be specially successful in mustering large 
words when she felt called upon to administer any reproof to this 
little servant of hers. 

“ No occasion !” said Flutters, significantly, for the recollection 
of an apple-tree and a crying maiden was not so far removed as to 
lose any of its poignancy. 

“ What do you mean T questioned Hazel, with a puzzled frown. 

“ Oh, nothing particular,” Flutters said, quickly, seeing what an 
explanation might lead up to, and then he succeeded in changing 
the subject by announcing the arrival of Captain and Mrs. Boniface. 

“ Oh, doesn’t mamma look lovely 1” and Hazel’s happy little 
face flushed with pride. 

“Yes; and just look at Josephine!” sighed the Marberrys, 
simultaneously, for those little women were so overcharged with 
delight as scarce to be able either to speak or breathe in quite 
regular and commonplace fashion. 

“Ah! shes the girl,” said Starlight, who, whether from honest 
admiration or a spirit of mischief, never lost an opportunity for ex- 
tolling the virtues and attractions of Hazel’s older sister. 

“And she’s drawn Harry Avery,” added Hazel, for once in her 
life adroit enough not to betray any annoyance ; “ I don’t believe 
she minds, either.” 


148 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT. 


“Well, Harry doesn’t mind, I know that much. Shouldn’t 
wonder myself if he managed to have it come that way.” Starlight 
evidently spoke from knowledge of facts, for, like as not, Cousin Harry 
had foolishly taken that small boy somewhat into his confidence. 

This “ drawing” that Hazel spoke of was a queer custom of the 
olden days. Partners for the evening were chosen by lot. They 
danced, walked, and chatted with no one else, and when the dancing 
was over partook together of such modest refreshment as rusks and 
tea. This arrangement was most advantageous for the young ladies 
who were not specially attractive, for by means of it the fairest and 
the plainest were treated exactly alike. Now, for all this informa- 
tion, and much more beside, as I told you in the preface, we are in- 
debted to that delightful first chapter of Mr. McMasters’s History; 
but although you may not be old enough to care to read that 
chapter for yourself, nor half old enough to be allowed to attend a 
Dancing Assembly, nor fortunate enough to gain entrance to a little 
mid-air gallery, where you could watch all the fine goings on unob- 
served, yet I believe you are quite old enough to understand one 
thing — and that is that the pleasure of those old-time assemblies 
must have depended altogether upon the partner that fell to one’s 
lot. A wretched sort of a time, or an indifferent sort of a time, or a 
very good time indeed — all lay within the possibilities of that one 
little chance. So do you wonder very much, or do you blame them 
very much, if those old-fashioned beaux, with their powdered hair, 
velvet knee breeches, and silver shoe-buckles, sometimes “ managed 
things,” as Starlight said.^ At any rate, Harry Avery was supremely 
happy to have Josephine Boniface fall to his lot, and if he hadn’t 
been guilty of “managing things” at all, why, all that remains to be 
said is that he was a very lucky fellow. Miss Pauline formed the 
only exception to this rigidly observed rule, as it was always an 
understood thing that her brother Hans should be her partner; but 
being, as Starlight said, “ as graceful as a fairy,” and quite as light on 
her feet, it often happened that some friend of the Van Vleets 
would beg a dance of Pauline, and give the faithful brother a chance 
for “ a turn” with his partner in exchange. 

“ Why, there’s Aunt Frances,” exclaimed Starlight, suddenly spy- 
ing her seated in a chair at the farther corner of the room. “ Did 
she come in with the Van Vleets ?” 


IN THE LITTLE GOLD GALLED V, 


149 


“ Yes, I think so ; and doesn’t she look a picture !” said Hazel, 
fairly feasting her eyes upon that much-loved lady. “ And her dress’ 
girls ! zsn^ it lovely !” and Hazel, in her eagerness, gave Tilly Mar' 
berry, who sat next to her, a good hard hug. “ When I am forty 
or fifty, or whatever age Aunt Frances is, I shall wear black 
velvet and soft old lace about my neck just like that. Now I 
shouldn’t wonder” — Hazel spoke slowly, as if really giving the 
matter most thoughtful consideration — “ I shouldn’t wonder if 
Aunt Frances was as pretty as Josephine when she was a real 
young lady.” 

“ I half believe I think she’s as pretty now,” answered Starlight, 
notwithstanding his constant championship of Josephine’s superior 
charms. 

“Who’s she talking to. Starlight.?” 

“ Fm sure I don’t know,” said Starlight. 

“ Why, dat’s Major Potter, a lawyer what practices down our 
way,” volunteered John Thomas, “and dere ! dere comes my Colonel 
and Lady Hamilton. Isn’t she a booty ? Where’s your Aunt 
Frances now. Mars Starlight.?” 

“Just where she was before, John Thomas, the loveliest-looking 
lady in the room. Lady Hamilton zs very handsome, though.” 

“ Handsome ! well, you’d better believe it; and de Colonel ! now 
jus’ look at him, chilluns. Isn’t he just too elegant ! He jus’ ought 
to be a king, Colonel Hamilton ought ter, and he’s dat kind, he 
wouldn’t speak cross to de laziest pickaninny in de land.” 

“Then I suppose he never speaks cross to you, John Thomas,” 
said Hazel, significantly. 

“ Dere ain’t neber no ’casion, Miss Hazel,” and John Thomas 
looked as though he considered her remark altogether uncalled for. 

“ Ain’t dere neber no 'casion f asked Starlight, perfectly imitat- 
ing the darkey dialect. “ How ’bout dat mornin’ when you upset de 
trash basket in de middle of de office flo’ ?” 

“ Dat mornin’ was a ’ception. Mars Starlight, and it seems to me 
your cousin, Mr. Avery, might fin’ somethin’ better to talk ’bout dan 
to be detailin’ de little events of de office.” 

It was great fun to hear John Thomas go on in this fashion. 
He had the reputation of being the most amusing little darkey in 
the city, and when they were not completely absorbed in watching 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT. 


150 

the dancing, Hazel and Starlight managed between them to keep 
him “going,” to the delighted amusement of the Marberrys. 

Meantime the minute hand of the great white-faced clock at the 
end of the hall was marking quarter to eight in no uncertain char- 
acters, and Hazel had faithfully promised that at eight o’clock her 
little party should turn their backs on the festivities, no matter how 
alluring and absorbing they might happen to be at that particular 
moment. But it sometimes happens that matters of considerable 
importance come to pass within the limits of fifteen minutes — often, 
in fact, in much shorter time than that, and this was true of the par- 
ticular fifteen minutes in question. 

And now, as this is already a pretty long chapter, I propose that 
we stop right where we are, make a new one, and call it 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


MORE OF A RED-COAT THAN EVER. 



HILE Hazel and Starlight, Flut- 
ters, John Thomas, and the 
Marberrys were so hugely en- 
joying watching the people 
down there on the floor of the 
Assembly, it so happened that 
some of the people were not 
enjoying themselves at all. In- 
deed, quite the contrary ; for 
not a few were acting un- 
kindly, and others were being 
treated unkindly ; and if there 
is any enjoyment for anybody 
in that sort of a proceeding, 
one ought to be thankful not 
yet to have discovered it. 

You know how it came 
about that Colonel and Mrs. 
Boniface went to the Assembly ; 
it was simply because they felt 
they ought to. If the old friends were truly sorry for having been so 
unfriendly, would it not be ungracious for them to decline this invita- 
tion } Would it not look as if they themselves were still harboring 
ill-feeling ? And you also know that Harry Avery had been 
consulted in the matter, and that his urgent advice had been, “ Go, 
by all means.” So the Colonel and his wife had decided to accept 
quite in the face of all their preferences, and dreading the ordeal far 
more than either was willing to confess to the other. But alas ! for 


152 


A LOYAL LITTLE RED-COAT, 


the decision that cost them such a personal sacrifice, and alas ! for 
the hopefulness of Harry’s buoyant temperament; for if Colonel and 
Mrs. Boniface ever had reason abundantly to regret any step 
they had ever taken, it was going to this Dancing Assembly ; and if 
ever two proud and sensitive hearts were stung to the quick, theirs 
were that evening. It seems that Harry was mistaken in thinking 
that the invitation had been sent because of a general desire to 
make amends to the Bonifaces. True it was that two members of 
the Assembly Committee had insisted upon their being invited, 
hardly thinking, however, that they would come ; but alas ! in case 
they did come some other members had resolved to make it very 
uncomfortable for them. Somehow or other nothing seems so 
completely to change a warm human heart into something as cold 
and hard as a stone as what men call a strong party feeling, and 
party feeling ran very high in those days in which our great-grand- 
fathers lived a hundred years ago. That is to say, men felt so sure 
that their own opinions were the only right ones that they fairly 
hated those who did not agree with them. 

And so it happened that, with cheeks crimsoned from the insults 
they had received, and with blood tingling to their very finger tips 
Colonel and Mrs. Boniface left the room, sending word to Jose- 
phine (who had been screened from any insult by Harry’s chival- 
rous devotion) to follow them. Hazel suddenly missed them from 
the crowd below, and knew in a flash what had happened. Indeed, 
the color had flushed into her own round cheeks as she thought she 
saw a Mrs. Potter, whose husband was a leading Whig, pretend not 
to see that Mrs. Boniface had made a move toward shaking hands 
with her. But “No,” she thought, “ I must be mistaken; no lady 
would be so rude.” So it would seem, little Hazel; but it often 
happens that things are not what they seem in this queer world of 
ours ; and as Hazel’s dear mother learned to her sorrow, several 
others who called themselves ladies could be just as rude as Mrs. 
Potter, and some of them yet more rude. Fortunately for the Mar- 
berrys and Starlight and Flutters, the clock was just on the stroke 
of eight when Hazel made her unhappy discovery, for she could not 
have borne to have sat there another moment looking down on that 
brilliant company, many of whom, looking so fine and attractive, 
were at heart so cruel. 


MORE OF A RED-COAT THAN EVER. 


153 


“ Time’s up,” said Hazel, starting to creep round to the little door 
at the back of the gallery, and not trusting herself to say more than 
that for fear a trembling voice should betray her suppressed excite- 
ment. 

Hazel was the acknowledged commander-in-chief of that little 
party, and difficult as it was to turn abruptly from the fascinating 
scene, the children dropped obediently on to all fours, and followed 
in her train. The Marberrys’ carriage was waiting at the door, and 
Flutters, after helping the others in, climbed onto the box beside 
Jake, the driver. It was wonderful the way in which he seemed 
always to know intuitively the “ proper thing” to do. He was con- 
stantly placed on such an equal footing with the other children that 
it would have been only natural for him to have frequently for- 
gotten that, after all, he was only Miss Hazel’s little servant ; but 
somehow or other he never did forget it ; perfectly free in his 
manner, and never in any sense servile, yet always betraying a 
little air of respectful deference that was simply charming. 
Indeed, body-servant or no, all the Bonifaces had grown to actu- 
ally loving little Flutters, and Flutters knew it and was radiantly 
happy. 

All the way home Hazel tried to be as merry as before. It 
would be such a pity, she thought unselfishly, to spoil the Mar- 
berrys’ good time; but she did not succeed very well. 

“ Are you tired. Hazel.?” asked Milly, as they neared home. 

“Yes, awfully tired,” and with this admission the tears sprang 
into her eyes ; but fortunately it was too dark in the carriage for any 
one to see them. “ It’s very uncomfortable,” she added, “ to sit with 
your legs curled under you so long as we had to there in the 
gallery.” 

“ Do you think so .?” exclaimed Tilly ; “ why, I could have sat 
there till morning, and never known I had a leg, it was all so 
lovely !” 

“ So lovely !” echoed Milly in a tone of evident regret that it 
was over. 

“ Here we are,” said Hazel, as Flutters leaped down and opened 
the door for her ; “ good-night, Milly” (a kiss) ; “good-night, Tilly” 
(another kiss) ; “ much obliged for the ride.” 

“ Much obliged for the lovely time,” the Marberrys called back. 


% 

154 A LOYAL LLTTLE LEE-COAT, 

for Jake, impatient to get home and to bed, had immediately driven 
on. 

“ Why, it looks as though your father and mother were home,” 
Starlight exclaimed as they walked up the path. 

“ Yes, they are home, I know that,” said Hazel, excitedly, “ and 
Josephine is home, and I know too that they’ve had a horrid time, 
and that they’ll never go to anything in New York again — never ; 
and if there is a cowardly set of creatures in the world it’s the spite- 
ful old Whigs.” 

Starlight and Flutters stood aghast, while Hazel flew past them 
into the house, slamming the front door after her, as much as to say 
that no exasperating Whig should ever enter it again, not even if 
his name was Job Avery Starlight. 

The boys sat down on the step of the porch and conversed in 
dazed, excited whispers as to what it could all mean. 

Hazel flew up the stairs into her mother’s room and into her 
mother’s arms with one great sob. 

“Why, Hazel, my little daughter, what is the matter ?” and Mrs. 
Boniface, whom Hazel had found sitting in a low rocker at the 
window, still in the dress she had worn to the ball, drew Hazel’s 
brown head on to her shoulder, and soothingly stroked the brown 
wavy hair; but the tears were in her own eyes, and her heart was 
very heavy. 

Hazel could not speak at first for crying, but the caressing touch 
of that dear hand was wonderfully calming, and presently she was 
able to say, “ I know all about it, mother. I know they treated you 
shamefully. I saw that horrid old Mrs. Potter when she — ” 

“ Hazel ! Hazel, dear, you must not talk like this.” 

“ But it’s true, every word of it is true, and tell me” (and Hazel 
straightened herself up and looked through blinding tears into her 
mother’s face), “ didn’t they insult you ? didn’t they treat you very 
rudely, and didn’t you all come home on that account 

Well, they certainly were not very kind. Hazel, and it seemed 
best for us to come home ; but it is not worth caring too much 
about, you know.” 

“ And to think how friendly Mrs. Potter used to be, and how 
much she pretended to think of you, mother,” and Hazel, becoming 
a little less excited, thoughtfully turned the little turquoise ring on 



“ Why, Hazel, my little daughter, what is the matter ? 


156 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT, 


her finger round and round, and shook her head sadly from side to 
side, as though her faith in human nature was forever shaken, as in- 
deed it had reason to be. 

It was a pretty picture, albeit a rather sad one, the mother and 
daughter, in the graceful costumes of a hundred years ago, sitting 
there in the low studded room, dimly lighted by the little rush-light 
on the mantel — a high narrow mantel, with the glowing embers on 
the andirons beneath it crackling loudly now and then, after the 
manner of a wood fire that is slowly dying out. An oblong mirror, 
hung at a wide angle from the wall, surmounted the high mantel, 
and reflected the little rocker with its double load, and the pretty 
old-fashioned drapery at the window. It was not often that that 
little mirror, nor any other mirror for that matter, had the chance to 
frame a picture for itself full as lovely as ever artist dreamed of. 

But while Hazel and her mother were talking, and Hazel her- 
self was growing calmer and Mrs. Boniface’s heart lighter with the 
effort to cheer her, some other things were happening in which we 
have an interest. Captain Boniface was striding along the road 
that led on to the Marberrys, trying to walk off the angry feelings 
that threatened to get the mastery over him. There is nothing like 
a good brisk walk in bracing air to get a feverish, excited mind into 
normal condition, and the Captain knew it ; but when the force of 
the angry mood had spent itself, there still was left to him a sense 
of sad hopelessness for which he saw no remedy. To have a little 
family on one’s hands and no money to care for them is enough to 
make the bravest heart heavy ; but to have reached that point, and 
at the same time to see every chance of ever getting on one’s feet 
again absolutely taken away, is enough to break a man’s spirit. 
And matters had come to just that pass that evening with Captain 
Boniface. If the old friends had at last shown themselves friendly, 
he would have felt there was a hope of his making his services val- 
uable to some of them, as indeed there would have been, for every 
one acknowledged Captain Boniface to be a man of rare ability. 
But it had now been shown him very plainly that there was no use 
in longer trying to stem the tide of hate and prejudice that set so 
strongly against him, and with the future a hopeless blank, he 
finally turned his face homeward. But the other thing that was 
happening, and in which we too have an interest, was of a cheerier 


MORE OF A RED-COAT THAN EVER, 


157 


sort, and was takinp^ place at the Assembly, which had only fairly 
gotten under way when the Bonifaces left it. 

That old-fashioned law of a partner for the evening, to be 
chosen by lot, of course applied only to the young folks, and the 
more staid, middle-aged, and elderly people were free to chat with 
each other, else why should they have cared to go to the ball at all ? 

Now it happened that Aunt Frances, who was quite in igno- 
rance of the sad experiences of the Bonifaces, was having a most sat- 
isfactory conversation with a Mrs. Rainsford, a near neighbor, whom 
she had not seen since her flight from home nearly two years before, 
for Mrs. Rainsford was able to answer a great many questions which 
Aunt Frances had been longing to ask about her own home, and 
the care it was having. 

“ No, I should not think the place had been greatly abused,” said 
Mrs. Rainsford, while Aunt Frances sat, an eager listener. “ Captain 
Wadsworth moved his men down to the barracks at Fort George a 
month ago, and since then he has been giving the house a thorough 
overhauling. You know he has resigned his commission, and 
intends to remain in this country.” 

“Yes; and I know, too, that he intends to remain in my home,” 
sighed Aunt Frances. “ I wonder if he would sell it to me, though, 
for that matter, it’s as much mine to-day as it ever was. But there’s 
no use to talk about that cither, for I have saved from the wreck 
barely money enough to live upon.” 

“ But. Miss Avery,” said Mrs. Rainsford in a serious whisper, that 
was scarcely audible above the music, ‘‘ Fll tell you one thing: 
I do not believe Captain Wadsworth will remain in your house 
very long.” 

“ Indeed ! why not and Aunt Frances’s deviated eyebrows be- 
trayed her surprise. 

“Why, because it is going to be so very uncomfortable for all 
Loyalists here in the city.” 

“ I do not quite see what you mean, Mrs. Rainsford.” 

“ No, of course not, dear,” replied Mrs. Rainsford (seeming to 
regard Aunt Frances in the light of an older daughter, though, in 
point of fact, there was but little difference in their ages.) “ No, of 
course not ; your kind heart would never dream of such things as 
are happening on every side. The leading Whigs, now that the 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT, 


^58 

Revolution has been successful, say that they’ll make this town too 
hot to hold a single Tory, and, mark my words, they’ll do it, too. 
Perhaps you haven’t noticed how the Bonifaces were treated to- 
night ; they went home some time ago.” 

“ Why, Mrs. Rainsford, can that be possible questioned Aunt 
Frances, looking vainly about the room in search of her friends; “I 
call that cruelty of the most unwarrantable sort.” 

“ Yes, it must be very humiliating to say the least; but then they 
have brought it upon themselves, you must remember,” for Mrs. 
Rainsford was herself a most ardent Whig, and thought the Loyal- 
ists, whether English or American, should be made to pay very 
dearly for their behavior. 

“ You ought to have seen your garden this summer. Miss 
Avery,” continued Mrs. Rainsford, reverting to their former subject. 

Captain Wadsworth must be very fond of flowers. He took the 
best of care of it.” 

“ I think I could not have borne to see it, Mrs. Rainsford.” 

“ No, perhaps not, dear child ; and to think that you really have 
Alexander Hamilton to thank for it all. You must hate him. He 
is here to-night, you know, with his young wife. I don’t wonder she 
turned the heads of the officers at Morristown. You know she 
went to visit her aunt while Washington had his headquarters 
there, and Hamilton was his aide-de-camp, and fell in — ” 

“ Sh — ” interrupted Aunt Frances, who saw that Colonel Ham- 
ilton was not very far off, and might easily overhear what they were 
saying; and, indeed, he was not far off, for the very good reason 
that, in the company of his friend. Major Potter, every step was 
bringing him nearer. 

Imagine, if you can. Aunt Frances’s surprise when Major 
Potter, whom she knew quite well, paused before her, and bowing 
low, with old-time grace and courtliness, said slowly, “May I take 
the liberty. Miss Avery, of presenting my friend. Colonel Ham- 
ilton ?” 

Aunt Frances was, of course, greatly confused, though too much 
of a lady to betray it ; but Mrs. Rainsford, astonished beyond meas- 
ure, and not always at her ease, was quite glad to slip away from 
an interview that promised to be, to say the least, embarrassing. 

Colonel Hamilton took the seat she left vacant. “ I begged the 


MORE OF A REF-COAT THAJV EVER. 159 

favor of an introduction, Miss Avery, and am very glad to meet 
you,” he said, politely. 

“ I must not doubt your sincerity. Colonel Hamilton,” Aunt 



Frances replied with no little dignity, “ but perhaps you do not 
recognize in me the Miss Avery whom you lately defeated in the 
courts.” 


A LOYAL LITTLE RED-COAT. 


i6o 

“ On the contrary,” replied the Colonel with a deferential air, 
for Aunt Frances was by many years his senior, “ that is the very 
reason why I wished to meet you. I feel myself to have been the 
cause — ” 

“Excuse me, Colonel Hamilton, but I desire neither apologies 
nor sympathy for with all her sweetness, Aunt Frances was 
high spirited ; she thought the Colonel’s manner was a little 
patronizing. 

But Colonel Hamilton was high spirited too, and was on his 
feet in a moment. “ It was not my intention to offer either sym- 
pathy or apologies. I bid you good-evening. Miss Avery.” 

But Aunt Frances said quickly, “ In that case I should prefer 
you to remain. Colonel Hamilton.” 

“ Thank you,” and the Colonel, with no little dignity, resumed 
his seat, while Aunt Frances condescended to add : 

“ I did not mean to be rude, but I wished you to understand 
my position.” 

“ It was because I wished you to understand mine that I sought 
this interview. Miss Avery; but I see I have need to be very care- 
ful as to my choice of words.” 

Aunt Frances smiled, as much as to say, ‘‘ Quite right. Colonel 
Hamilton.” 

“ I hope you realize,” he said, “ that my argument in Captain 
Wadsworth’s case was founded on the most sincere convictions;” 
and the Colonel half betrayed the admiration which Aunt Frances 
somehow inspired in him, notwithstanding her high-spiritedness. 

“ I never questioned that, Colonel Hamilton.” 

“ So I felt I had reason to believe, when I found you had urged 
your nephew to make application for the vacancy in my office.” 

“Why, I told Harry it was hardly necessary to volunteer the 
fact of our relationship,” said Aunt Frances, with unconcealed sur- 
prise. 

“ He evidently did not agree with you then, for he had been 
with me scarce twenty-four hours before he told me he was your 
nephew. I suppose you thought, if I knew it, that it might count 
against him; on the contrary, let me assure you it has helped him. 
It is no light thing. Miss Avery, to have done any one an injury, 
whether from conscientious motives or not ; and I shall welcome 


MORE OF A RED-COAT THAN EVER. i6i 

every chance to atone for it that comes within my power. I can 
imagine, in part at least, what it must mean to be banished from 
the home of a life-time under any circumstances, and especially 
when you feel that you have still a perfect right to be there.” 

This looked a little like sympathy on the Colonel’s part, but it 
was too kindly meant to be rejected. They were treading, how- 
ever, dangerously near the region of Aunt Frances’s proud sensi- 
tiveness, so she changed the direction somewhat by asking, “ But 
Harry is able to rise on his own merits, is he not. Colonel Ham- 
ilton i^” 

“Abundantly; that was one thing I desired to tell you. He 
has unusual capacity, and is remarkably efficient. I think his futur#"^ 
assured. As for me, it is a great satisfaction to know you do not 
question my sincerity. And now. Miss Avery, I will not detain 
you longer, and will say good-evening.” 

“Good-evening, Colonel Hamilton.” 

And so the Colonel went back to his pretty young wife in the 
farther corner of the room, and Aunt Frances, with a tumult of 
thoughts in her heart, rejoined the Van Vleets, and was glad to find 
them making ready to go down to the clumsy barge, which, 
manned by two of the farm hands, was waiting to carry them home 
across the moonlit river. How much she had to think over; and 
what had Colonel Hamilton told her but that he would lose no 
chance to atone for what his duty, as he understood it, had com- 
pelled him to do. But one thing Colonel Hamilton had not told 
her, but which was very true, nevertheless, and that was, that one of 
the strongest impulses toward this same atoning had come to him 
in the form of a call from a very earnest and winsome little maiden 
one sunny September morning. “Yes, what may it not mean 
thought Aunt Frances, and a hope that she had not dared to 
cherish for a long, long time shaped itself once more before her. 
Perhaps it might come about that she should have her home again 
some day ; surely it was not impossible, since Colonel Hamilton 
himself was enlisted in her favor. And this was the man whom she 
thought her worst enemy — whom she had said she would go a long 
way to avoid meeting. Very thankful was she now that the 
Colonel had given her no opportunity to carry out her intention. 
So there is this comfort : if some sorry things happened at the 


62 


A LOYAL LITTLE RED-COAT 


Assembly, some other things happened that were not sorry at 
all. 

Meanwhile poor Starlight and Flutters sat shivering on the front 
porch. Captain Boniface had come home, but had quietly entered 
the house at the rear, and the children had not heard him. 

“Really, I think we had better go in now,” said Flutters, as 
though he had brought the same inducement to bear upon Starlight 
several times before. 

“ You may go if you like,” answered Starlight. “ It’s different 
with you, you live here ; but you don’t catch me going in at a door 
that’s been slammed in my face, unless the some-one who slammed it 
comes out and gets me.” 

So Flutters stretched and yawned and shivered a moment 
longer, and then decided to quit the dreary scene. 

“ Now, don’t you tell Hazel that I’m out here. Flutters. Promise 
me.” 

“ Not if she asks me?” 

“ No, not if she asks you fifty times.” Starlight was angry, and 
not without reason, but he did not believe impetuous Hazel would 
give him another thought, and so he looked about to see how he 
could most comfortably pass the night on the porch, for he knew 
nowhere to go at that late hour. Perhaps it was a pity for a fellow 
to be so proud, but he could not help it. He wondered if other 
people’s pride made the blood rush so hotly through their veins, 
and made their hearts thump like trip hammers ; there was one good 
thing about it, though : it helped to keep him a little warmer out 
there in the chill November evening. 

Flutters groped his way forlornly to bed, for all the lights were 
out in the house. He longed to knock at Hazel’s door and tell 
her about Starlight, and his hand actually doubled itself in a prepar- 
atory way as he passed her door ; but no, it would not do. Starlight 
would never forgive him ; besides, he had promised. 

But fortunately it was not to be an out-all-night experience, after 
all, for Starlight. Hazel’s room was directly under the roof of the 
high, pillared porch, and as, just before getting into bed, she leaned 
out to close the blinds, so that the morning sun should not wake 
such a tired and sorrowful little body too early, she saw some dark 
thing lying under the mat on the porch. At first she thought it 


MORE OF A RED-COAT THAN EVER. 


163 

was the Marberrys’ dog, who occasionally made them a visit, so she 
called, “ Bruno ! Bruno ! ” in a penetrating whisper, but the dark 
object showed no signs of life. Then she said, “ Who is it r and 
the dark object moved a little and replied sullenly, “ Who do you 
suppose T 

“ Why, Job Starlight, what are you doing out there; you’ll catch 
your death of cold.” 

“ I know it,” said Starlight, for by this time even his pride had 
cooled down a little, and his teeth were chattering, “ and there’ll be 
no one to blame for it but yourself. Hazel Boniface.” 

“ What do you mean.?” asked Hazel ^ but as she spoke a convic- 
tion of just exactly what he meant swept over her. “ Haven’t you 
been in since I left you on the porch 

“No, I haven’t been in since you slammed the door in my face 
and said if there was a cowardly set of spiteful old creatures in the 
world it was the Whigs.” 

“ I did not call you a — ” and then Hazel realized that it was 
very foqlish, as well as very cold, to stand talking there in that way, 
so she called down, “ But wait a minute, and I’ll come and let you in.” 
Then she closed the shutters and hurriedly slipped into her wrapper 
and slippers, and in a twinkling the hall lamp was lighted and the 
hall door thrown open ; but Starlight was in no hurry to enter — not 
he ; he was going to see this thing through in right dignified 
fashion, notwithstanding, now that the prospect looked more cheer- 
ful, he could himself see a funny side to the proceeding. 

“ I did not m^dcci you were cowardly or spiteful. Starlight,” Hazel 
said again. “ I meant all the other Whigs. Do, please, come in.” 

“ Then why did you slam the door in this Whig’s face. I’d like to 
know,” and Starlight was so gracious as to advance as far as the 
broad, old-fashioned door-sill ; “ besides, all the other Whigs are not 
spiteful and cowardly. Aunt Frances isn’t, and — ” 

“ Starlight,” interrupted Hazel, “ this is very mean of you. If 
you knew what we’d had to bear to-night you wouldn’t blame me 
for anything. I was very angr}^ I know, but I am very sorry, and 
now — won’t you please come in 

Certainly this was as much as the most aggrieved of indi- 
viduals could desire, and Starlight walked in, and dignity and re- 
sentment and everything else were forgotten as Hazel with tearful 


164 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT, 


eyes told him of the evening’s experiences. “ Yes,” she said at the 
close of her narration, “ I saw Mrs. Potter with iny own eyes refuse 
to shake hands with mamma, and if it hadn’t been lime then to 
come home I do not know what I ever should have done.” 

Starlight drew a deep sigh, but Hazel had grown a full inch in 
his estimation. It was real plucky in her to have kept her forlorn 
discovery to herself all the way home ; he could almost understand 
now how she had slammed the door when she reached it. But 
what a shame it was that a family like the Bonifaces should be 
so shamefully treated! “Well, it’s too bad. Hazel, that’s all I can 
say,” he said; “but I suppose we may as well go to bed. It must 
be very late.” 

“ Why, where is Flutters asked Hazel, for the first time recall- 
ing his existence. 

“ Here,” answered a voice from the top of the hall stairway ; “ I 
was just coming down to see if I could not make Starlight come 
in.” 

“ I don’t believe anybody could have made him,” said Hazel ; 
“ the Starlights must be a very proud family.” 

“ So must the Bonifaces,” answered Starlight, with the shadow 
of a smile; “ but, then, I like proud families.” 

“ And so do I,” said Hazel. 

A few moments afterward the little trio separated, and with the 
thought of “ Better late than never,” Starlight crept gratefully into 
the bed of the little hall room, whose blankets and coverlid had 
been carefully folded back for him, full five hours before, by Dinah’s 
kind black hands. 








'/ 


CHAPTER XIX. 


A SAD LITTLE CHAPTER. 



OT a bright outlook certainly* 
but then, you see, it is to 
be only a little chapter. 

Some people think that 
children s books ought to be 
cheery and bright from cover 
to cover, and so they ought 
— that is, for the very little 
children; but when they have 
gotten beyond the days of 
rhymes and jingles and col- 
ored pictures, and have wit 
enough and appreciation 
enough to enjoy a chaptered 
story, then I, for one, think 
the stories should be true to 
life. To be sure, the charm 
of such delightful and purely 
impossible tales as“ Alice in 
Wonderland” and “Water 
Babies” lies in the fact that 
they do not pretend to be 
true to anything in the world: 
save the enchanting caprice: 
of the people who write- 
them ; but when one comes to place a story in a real time, and put 
real people in it, then it is bound to be true to the real things. 

Then one certainly does not need to be, say, more than seven 


i66 


A LOYAL LITTLE RED-COAT, 


years old to get at least an inkling of the truth, that the real things 
of life are not always bright things. But there is no use of dwelling 
at too great length upon these same sorrowful experiences, and so 
for that reason we are going to try to make this a short chapter. 
And now, to tell you right away what the sad thing was, for fear 
your lively imagination should be conjuring up something yet more 
sad than the reality, though the reality was sad enough, since it was 
nothing more nor less than that, when Captain Hugh Boniface 
woke on the morning after the Assembly, he found that he could 
move neither hand nor foot. The eager mind worked as actively 
as ever, but not a muscle would respond to the great, strong will, 
and the Captain knew — knew beyond all hoping — that he was com- 
pletely paralyzed, and that in all probability, as far as ever rendering 
any real service to that blessed little family of his was concerned, he 
had better, from that time, be out of the world than in it. 

It is needless to tell you very particularly with what foreboding 
the alarming news spread through the little household, nor how 
breathlessly they all waited for old Dr. Melville’s verdict as he 
came from the Captain’s room a few hours later. Nor of how, in 
spite of his encouraging words, that bade them be hopeful, they read 
that in his kind old eyes which plainly told them that he felt there 
was little enough to ground any real hope upon. 

“Yes,” said Dr. Melville, gravely, as Mrs. Boniface followed 
him to the door, at the close of one of his professional visits, “ I 
feared something of this sort might be in store for the Captain. He 
has been into my office several times complaining of certain 
wretched benumbing feelings that we doctors dread to hear ac- 
knowledged. But it’s not strange, Mrs. Boniface, not strange at all; 
he’s been through enough to break down the strongest constitution. 
There was a sight of mischief already done when they brought him 
home from Lexington in ’75, and then all these years of worry and 
excitement have not helped matters.” 

“ But, doctor,” said Mrs. Boniface, nerving herself to ask the 
question, “ do you think he will never be any better ?” 

“ I doubt if he ever walks again, Mrs. Boniface.” 

“ Do you mean, Dr. Melville, that it is your opinion that he 
never will walk again. You must be very frank with me, else I 
cannot tell how to plan for the future.” 


A SAD LITTLE CHAPTER, 


167 

“Well, then, since you are a brave woman, and I know you mean 
what you say, I will give you my honest opinion, which is this: that 
your good Captain will probably, at least in a degree, regain the use 
of his hands and arms, but never, I fear, of his lower limbs.” 

It was not easy for Mrs. Boniface to hear her fears put thus 
plainly into words, but it was best, she felt sure, that she should 
know the worst. 

Meantime the days dragged wearily along for Captain Boniface, 
and yet brought with them one glorious revelation. Never before 
had he known quite so fully what an all-powerful love there was in 
his heart for that dear wife of his. It was a privilege simply to be 
able to watch her as she moved so quietly about the room, and to 
listen to the sweet familiar voice; and was it. not abundant cause for 
thankfulness that he was still in the same world with her, though 
no longer able to move about in it ? But what were they going to 
do 1 That, of course, was the thought that gave him greatest anxiety. 
The sum of money in the bank had been growing more and more slen- 
der with every year of diminished income, until now there was scarce 
enough left to tide them over more than another twelve months, 
and then only with the strictest economy. But the good Captain 
did not have to meet this dread question alone, and in the twilight 
of a November afternoon he had talked it all over with his wife, 
and as the result of that long, quiet talk they had decided that Mrs. 
Boniface should write for aid to her father, a clergyman, living alone 
in a little ivy-grown rectory in the South of England. But it was 
not easy to come to this decision. They hesitated to intrude their 
heavy anxieties upon the good old man, whose own income was by 
no means ample. But there was simply no one else to whom they 
could turn, and they knew he would gladly give them any help 
within his power. 

“ And now, Hugh, there is nothing for us to do but to wait till 
the answer to my letter comes, and do let us try not to worry,” said 
Mrs. Boniface when the long talk was over, and they did try, and 
they succeeded, and right in the face of the heaviest trial they had 
ever known there was peace and even an added sweetness in the 
Boniface home life. The new trouble knit all hearts closer together ; 
they realized more keenly than ever before how much it was just to 
have each other, and they cared far less than such a little while ago 


i68 


A LOYAL LLTTLE LEE-COAT, 


they would have thought possible for the insults of people who, after 
all, had been friends only in name. But half the secret of the bra 
very of the little household lay in the fact that the Captain himself 
was so brave ; but often, of course, his courage was strongly tested ; 
seldom more strongly than when little Kate would come running 
to the side of his bed, and he felt himself powerless to lift her to a 
seat beside him or to romp with her as he used to love to do. 

One afternoon, when he was alone in the room, he heard the pat- 
ter of her little feet on the stairway. He could count each step, for, 
after the necessarily slow fashion of very little walkers, she had need 
to plant both feet on one step before attempting another. But at 
last the patient little climber was where she wanted to be, and said, 
without stopping to think, “ Lift me up, papa, please.” 

Ah ! Kate, you always forget papa can’t do that,” and the Cap- 
tain’s eyes grew misty. 

“ Oh, yes, I did fordet,” Kate answered, with a world of regret in 
her tone ; and then she laid her chubby head on her father’s arm and 
tenderly stroked the great brown hand as though she loved him 
more than ever now, and for the very reason that he was so help- 
less. 

“ Kate,” said her father, when he felt sure that he could speak and 
yet keep his voice steady, “you are such a darling, Kate.” 

“ Mamma said that a little while ago,” answered her little ladyship 
calmly, “ and Josephine said it yesterday twice, and then Hazel said 
something like it too. 1 dess I was never quite so nice as lately.” 

“ I guess you were never quite such a comfort,” smiled the Cap- 
tain. “ But then you must not grow too set up about it.” 

Kate did not pay much attention to this last remark ; she had de- 
cided on a little plan, and was putting it into execution. She pushed 
a chair to the side of the bed and mounted, by aid of its round, to its 
seat ; from there it was an easy climb to the bed ; and then, shoving 
the chair away with a push of her little foot, she turned to her father 
with a sigh of honest satisfaction, such as no mere “ lifting up” 
could possibly have occasioned. 

Evidently she had come to stay, the blessed little sunbeam, and 
straightway the Captain began to rack his brain for the story that he 
knew well enough in a moment would be asked for, and for the 
sort that would be likely to keep her attention longest. No one 



9f 


She pushed a chair to the side of the bed 



170 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT. 


could tell so good a story as the Captain, and no one could tell it as 
well — at least, that was the verdict of Starlight and Flutters, of Hazel 
and the Marberrys, and a few other little folk who now and then 
had the pleasure of hearing him. Little Kate was delighted with 
the fact that she was to be favored with “ the first story since papa 
fell ill,” and, I fear, took a little selfish delight in the fact that she was 
the only listener. As for the story, it proved a fine one, with some 
very queer little people in it, who did most outlandish things, and 
Kate sat entranced till it was finished, and then, laying her head 
down on her father’s shoulder, “just to think it over,” fell fast asleep 
instead, and did not waken, even when the Captain, hearing Jo- 
sephine’s step in the hall, called her in to throw something over her. 
And then, after a while, what with Kate’s regular breathing as she 
lay on his helpless arm, and what with the light in the room grow- . 
ing dim and yet more dim as the glow faded out of the sunset, the . 
Captain fell asleep too, and all was so tranquil and peaceful that it ’ 
seems almost as though we had made a mistake in calling this “ A | 
Sad Little Chapter.” 

5 


CHAPTER XX. 


FLUTTERS COMES TO A DECISION. 



LETTERS had something on his mind, 
and this in addition to all the 
cares and anxieties of the Bon- 
ifaces, which he took upon him- 
self every whit as fully as though 
he actually belonged to the 
family. But the something in 
question was a little private 
affair of his own, an affair, 
however, that insisted upon 
filling most of his waking 
thoughts, and finally, after 
looking at it in every possi- 
ble light, he arrived at a deci- 
sion. 

When a person has been 
thinking about a matter and 
turning it over and over in 
his mind, a decision is a glo- 
rious thing to come to. It is 
such a relief, after standing 
helpless in a. perfect maze of 
doubt and hesitation, to find a straight path opening up before you. 
At any rate. Flutters’s sensations were quite of that order, as late 
one afternoon he went to Mrs. Boniface and asked if she could 
spare him to go into town for a few hours. 

“ Certainly, Flutters, if it is necessary;” for it was the first time 


172 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED COAT. 


Flutters had made a request like that, and she wondered what the 
little fellow was up to. 

Flutters seemed to read her thoughts and answered, “ It is nec- 
essary, Mrs. Boniface, but I would rather not tell you what I want 
to go for, if you are willing to trust me.” 

“ Certainly, Fll trust you. Flutters,” was the answer that made 
his heart glad ; for it is such a fine thing to be thoroughly trusted, 
and the haste with which he donned his coat and hurried from 
the house showed that, at least in his estimation, the something to 
be done was as important as necessary. 

Along the frosty road, in the November twilight, the little 
fellow trudged at a brisk pace, now and then breaking into a full 
run, as though in his eagerness he could not brook the delay of 
sober walking. White, fleecy clouds were scudding across the sky, 
as though making way for the moon which shone out whenever 
they would let her, and whose silvery beams were following so closely 
in the wake of the daylight as to create one earth night in which, as 
in Heaven above, there was to be no darkness at all. 

But Flutters, like many another preoccupied fellow-mortal, saw 
naught of its beauty, only noting his surroundings sufficiently to 
take the straightest road to his destination. 

Finally, he brought up at the barracks of Company F at 
Fort George, which company, as you remember, we learned from 
Mrs. Rainsford, was no longer quartered at the Avery homestead. 

“ Is Sergeant Bellows here ?” Flutters asked, breathlessly, of one 
of the first men he met. 

“He be,” answered the man, with provoking slowness, “ but I 
doubt if he’ll see ye the night, he turned in early with a headache.” 

Flutters looked crestfallen. “You sail for England day after 
to-morrow, don’t you T 

“We do that,” answered the man, “ and it’s with pleasure we’ll 
be after shaking the dust of the place off us.” 

“ But I must see Sergeant Bellows before he goes,” said Flut- 
ters, pathetically. “ Do you think he’d mind if I disturbed him just 
for a minute ?” 

“ Maybe not,” said the man, “the Sergeant’s that good-natured. 
You’ll find him in bunk No. 6, in the front room above-stairs.” 

So Flutters climbed the stairs and entered the great cheerless 


FLUTTERS COMES TO A DECISION'. 


73 - 


room, with its row of uncomfortable-looking bunks lining the wall. 
A candle was burning in a tin candlestick at one end of the room. 
Flutters went on tip-toe and brought it so as to inspect the numbers 
of the bunks, and make no mistake, for he could see that two or 
three other men had also “ turned in” 



“ ‘ Who’s THERE ?’ asked Sergeant Bellows.” 


No. 6 was half-way down the room. “ Sergeant Bellows ” said 
Flutters, in a penetrating whisper, screening the candle flame with 
his hand, so that it should not shine in the Sergeant’s face. 

“ Who’s there ?” asked Sergeant Bellows, raising hirnself on one 
elbow and bewildered at the sight of his unexpected visitor. ^ 

‘‘ It’s only me. Flutters, and I hope your headache isn’t very 


174 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT, 


bad, ’cause I wouldn’t have disturbed you for the world, only I 
almost had to.” 

“ Oh, that’s all right,” said the Sergeant, kindly, “ but it’ll take me 
a moment to get my wits to working, although I wasn’t rightly 
asleep either. Here, set the candle on the shelf, and run get that 
stool yonder for yourself.” 

Flutters felt relieved thus to have the Sergeant take in the situ- 
ation at a glance, and realize that he had come with a purpose. 

“ I was coming up to Kings Bridge to-morrow to say good-bye,” 
the Sergeant said, rather sadly, when Flutters had seated himself be- 
side the bed. “ How are they up there T 

“Why, they’re not well at all — that is, you know, don’t you, 
about the Captain’s being paralyzed all over T 

“No, by gracious! paralyzed! Do you mean he can’t move 
hand nor foot T 

Flutters sorrowfully shook his head yes, as though words failed 
him. 

“ You don’t mean it,” said the Sergeant, sorrowfully ; “but tell 
me all about it,” and then Flutters told him everything about the 
Bonifaces that he thought could by any possibility be of any inter- 
est to him, till at last he felt justified in mtroducing his own little 
matter. 

“ But what I came to see about was this — ” 

“ Oh, to be sure,” said the Sergeant. “ I had almost forgotten 
to wonder what brought you here.” 

“Well,” said Flutters, solemnly, “I have a great favor to ask 
of you. Sergeant.” 

“ You’re not giving me much time to do it, then,” said the Ser- 
geant, “seeing as every British soldier quits the city day after 
to-morrow.” 

“ That’s the reason I came,” answered Flutters, excitedly, “ it’s 
in England that I want the favor done.” 

“ Why, what have you to do with England, I’d like to know T 
with evident astonishment. 

“Why, England was my home,” Flutters answered, rather 
proudly ; “ don’t you know I belonged to an English circus ?” 

“ Why, so you did ; I’d forgotten about that.” And then there 
was a little pause, while the Sergeant waited for further develop- 


FLUTTERS COMES TO A DECISION, 


175 


merits, and while Flutters was meditating how he had best put his 
case. 

“ I once heard you say, Sergeant, that your old home was some- 
where in Cheshire, and that’s where my father lives. His name is 
Wainright.” 

“ Then your name is Wainright, too,” said the Sergeant; Flut- 
ters Wainright, eh ?” 

“No, Arthur Wainright’s my name. Flutters is a name they 
gave me in the circus, because I used to be so scared when I first 
began to have a hand in the tumbling.” 

“ But look here,” said the Sergeant, in rather gruff, soldier-like 
fashion, “ if you’ve a father and he’s living, why aren’t you living 
with him ’stead of being away over here among strangers? Ye’re 
not a runaway, are ye. Flutters ?” 

'‘Yes, I am,” said Flutters, scanning the Sergeant’s face closely 
to watch the effect of his confession. “ I had to do it. Sergeant. I 
was in the way at home. My mother was a colored lady, but she 
died in India, and then my father took me to England and married 
a white lady, and there were some white children and I wasn’t wanted. 
They used to say I was such a queer, dark little thing.” 

“ Blest if I blame you, then!” said the Sergeant, whose heart was 
touched ; “ but does your father know you’re in good, kind hands. 
I suppose he cared more for you than the rest of ’em did ?” 

“ Yes,” said Flutters, “and so I felt I ought to let him know, 
and I thought perhaps if you didn’t mind, you’d hunt him up 
when you get over there, and tell him ’bout me, and how happy I 
am, and that I send my love.” 

“ But then he might be sending for you to come back. Have 
you thought of that. Flutters ?” 

“ Yes, I’ve thought of it, but it isn’t likely. Sergeant. He knows 
I’m not wanted there ; but anyhow, it seems to me I ought to let 
him know now that I’m so well cared for.” 

“ That’s so,” said the Sergeant, pausing a moment to give the 
matter due consideration. “ I think you’re right about it, and I’ll 
hunt your father up just as soon as I can get my furlough and run 
down to see my relatives in Cheshire.” 

“ Here’s my father’s name and address,” said Flutters, taking a 
slip of paper from his pocket, “and when you write to me just 


176 


A LOYAL LITTLE RED-COAT 


direct ‘ Flutters, ’ care of Captain Boniface. I don’t want them to 
know about me up there. I just want them to think of me as an 
ordinary little darkey, and not above any sort of work.” 

“ That’s very good of you,” replied Sergeant Bellows, tucking 
the precious little paper under his blue gingham-covered pillow ; 

not every boy would be so considerate as to think of that, but then 
it’s a mighty nice berth for you, too. I’d give a good deal myself to 
live with the Bonifaces.” 

“ But you are glad to go home, aren’t you T Flutters asked, 
with some surprise. 

“No doubt 1 shall be glad to see old England again, but once 
I’ve seen it that’s all I care for. It’s different with most of the 
men. Some of them can hardly speak for joy at the thought, and 
that makes some of the rest of us who haven’t any homes to go to 
very wretched with — well I guess you’ll have to call it not-any- 
home-sickness. It’s half what is the matter with me to-day ; and 
Andy there in the next bunk, who lost a wife and baby years ago in 
England, he’d a sight rather keep his back turned on everything 
that belongs to it. But there’s no help for it. A soldier had best 
not have any will of his own, nor any preferences either, if he knows 
what’s good for him.” 

Flutters did not know what reply to make to all this, though 
feeling very sorry for the old Sergeant, and so he began to button 
his coat together, and said : “ I guess I’d better go now. I hope I 
haven’t made your headache any worse. Sergeant T 

“ Never you fear. It’s done me good to talk with you, Flutters. 
It was more of a heartache than a headache, you know. I had one 
of those blue streaks, when a fellow feels he isn’t of any use in the 
world ; but if I can carry a message from you to your father ’way 
across the great ocean, I must be of a little use still, so I’ll turn over 
and go to sleep as a sensible old codger should,” and, suiting the 
action to the word. Sergeant Bellows rather unceremoniously 
^‘turned over” and pulled the gray army blanket half over his head. 

“ Good-night, then,” said Flutters, rising and taking the candle 
from the shelf. 

“Good-night,” yawned the Sergeant, as though already half 
asleep. “ I’ll be up to the Captain’s in the morning.” 

Flutters set the lighted candle back where he had found it, and 


FLUTTERS COMES TO A DECISION. 


177 


then made his way out as quietly as possible, and the moonbeams 
and the quiet once more had the room to themselves ; and, unless 
thoughts were too active or hearts too heavy, there was no reason 
why Andy and the Sergeant should not have dropped off into the 
soundest of naps, at any rate, until the rest of the men should turn 
in an hour or two later, when there would, no doubt, be noise 
enough to wake the best of sleepers. 


CHAPTER XXL 


SOME OLD FRIENDS COME TO LIGHT. 



T was a comfort to have that matter 
off his mind, and, whatever 
might come of it, he had done 
the right thing. Such were 
Flutters’s thoughts, as with 
hands plunged deep in his over- 
coat pockets, he started for 
home. To be sure, there was 
no knowing what might hap- 
pen. What if his father should 
write to Captain Boniface and 
tell him that he (Flutters) was 
a naughty little runaway, and 
advise him to have nothing 
more to do with him ? or sup- 
pose he should direct to have 
him sent right back to Eng- 
land, what would he do ? Why, 
then, he thought he’d simply 
run away again, only that would 
not be an easy thing to do after having been treated so kindly 
by the Bonifaces. But, as he had himself told the Sergeant, 
it was not at all probable that this would happen ; and so, like 
the logical little philosopher he was, he decided to think no 
more about it, and, if taking the advice of the old hymn, he 
“gave to the wmds his fears,” it was no time at all before they 
were blown far behind him. During the half hour that he had 
spent with the Sergeant, a cold northwest blow had set in, making 


SOME OLD FRIENDS COME TO LIGHT. 


179 


it far more comfortable for him to bend his head downward as he 
ran, and not take the wind full in his face. And this same north- 
west wind was playing all sorts of pranks with every pliable thing 
it could get hold of. The bare branches of the trees were swaying 
and crackling, withered leaves were swirling round in eddies and 
rustling loudly, gates were creaking on their rusty hinges, and, just 
as Flutters had reached a point in the road where an old hut stood, 
the blustering wind caught the only shutter remaining at one of its 
windows, and slammed it to with a bang that fairly made him jump. 
Looking toward the hut that had been deserted for years. Flut- 
ters saw a faint light shining out through the hatf of the window 
that was not screened by the closed shutter. 

“That's queer,” he thought; “who can be living there.?” and 
then, instead of running on without giving the matter another 
thought — as some boys, I think, would have done — he walked 
softly in at the gateway that had long lacked a gate, straight 
up to the window and peeped in ; nor was it mere curiosity that 
prompted him to do it either. Flutters knew that no one, under 
ordinary circumstances, would be there; nothing short of utter 
homelessness would make anybody seek shelter in that wretched 
place, and so he felt the matter ought to be investigated, and he 
was not afraid to be the one to do it. And what do you suppose 
he saw through the broken pane.? Something that would have 
made the tears come into almost anybody’s eyes, but something 
that made Flutters’s heart fairly stand still. 

The only furniture of the room was a three-legged stool on 
which a bit of candle was spluttering, fastened to the stool by the 
melting of its own tallow, and there beside it, on a bundle of straw, 
lay an old man ; and it took but one glance from Flutters’s aston- 
ished eyes to see that the man was Bobbin, the old circus drudge. 
In another second he had pushed the door open and was kneeling 
at his friend’s side, and stroking his cold, wrinkled hand. 

“Why, who is it.?” asked Bobbin, in a cracked, weak voice; “I 
can’t rightly see, somehow, but it’s good to know some one has come.” 

“Why, it’s me, Bobbin, don’t you know me.?” said Flutters, 
scarcely able to speak with emotion. 

A bright smile lighted up the old man’s face. “ Ah ! I thought 
He’d send somebody. He did send you, didn’t He?” 


i8o A LOYAL LLTTL.E LEE-COAT, 

“No, nobody sent me, Bobbin. I was just going by, and I saw 
the light, and I peeped in and then I saw you.’' 

The old man shook his head, as much as to say that he believed 
that the good Father had sent him, nevertheless. 

“ I’m glad you were the one to come,” he said, presently ; 
“ there’s nobody I’d rather have had than you. Flutters. You were 
always a kind little chap to old Bobbin.” 

Flutters did not say anything — he couldn’t. He just pressed 
the wrinkled hand a little harder as it lay in his. 

“You see. Flutters,” said Bobbin, presently, “I think I am 
going home to-night, and it was kind of lonely not to have 
somebody to care for me. Not that I mind going. I’m not a 
bit afraid. Flutters. I have done the best I could with the poor 
chance I had, and God will forgive the rest; don’t you think so. 
Flutters?” 

Flutters nodded his head, and then he said in a moment, when 
he thought he could control his voice : “ But, Bobbin, I do not 
believe you are going to die. You need food and fire and clothes 
to warm you, and I am going right off to get them for you.” 

“ Oh, no, please don’t,” pleaded the old man, putting what little 
strength he had into his hold on Flutters’s hand. “ I don’t want 
food nor anything. I just want to go, and it won’t be long. 
Promise me you’ll stay till morning. Flutters.” 

There was no gainsaying the entreaty in Bobbin’s voice, and so 
Flutters said: “I promise you. Bobbin;” and, with a gratified sigh 
the old man turned on his side and soon fell asleep. After a while, 
when Flutters dared to move a little, he piled the loose straw that 
lay about him as closely as possible over Bobbin, and finally de- 
cided to dispense with his own warm coat, for the sake of stuffing 
it in the hole of the little paneless window through which the wind 
was keenly blowing. 

Then, after another hour of motionless watching, during which 
Bobbin still lay sleeping as quietly as a child, it occurred to Flut- 
ters to try and make a fire in the blackened fireplace. Some old 
bits of board were lying in one corner of the room, and, piling 
them on the hearth, he easily succeeded in kindling them with a 
bundle of straw lighted at the candle. At first he was afraid that 
the crackling of the wood would waken the old man ; but, undis- 


SOME OLD FRIENDS COME TO LIGHT. igi 

turbed, he slept quietly on as though his mind was perfectly at rest 
now that Flutters had come to care for him. 

“ I do not believe he is going to die,” thought Flutters, after he 
had again sat motionless for a long time, and then he crept close 
on hands and knees to look into his face, and to listen if he was 
breathing quite regularly ; and there, bending over him, what did he 



“ There was his own name on the fly-leaf, in his mother’s writing.” 


see but something that made his heart bound for joy, though it 
was nothing but the corner of a little book showing itself above 
the ragged edge of one of Bobbin’s pockets. And no wonder he 
was glad, for he knew in a moment that it was his own little 
Prayer-Book. 

At first he thought he ought not to touch it for fear of waking 


i 82 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT, 


Bobbin, but how could he help it, and so, as gently as possible, he 
drew it out from its hiding-place, and crept back to the candle. I 
suppose we can hardly imagine v^^hat the finding of this old friend 
meant to Flutters. There was his own name on the fly-leaf, in his 
mothers writing, together with the date of his birth. Here was the 
proof, if he ever cared to use it, that he had once known a mother s 
love, and that was a deal more than some of the world’s waifs could 
lay claim to, and besides, he loved the book for its own sake, for 
the beautiful words and thoughts that were in it. And to think Bob- 
bin had kept it safe for him all these weeks ; Flutters began to think 
that perhaps the Lord had sent him to Bobbin after all. And so he 
fell to wondering, as many an older head full often wonders, as to 
how much mere chance has to do with the happenings of this world, 
and how much the careful guiding of a Heavenly Father; but that 
the Father above has a great deal to do therewith is no longer a 
question in the minds of many of us. 

Meantime it was growing very late, for the clock on the town- 
hall was on the verge of striking twelve, and the moon was high 
over head. But Bobbin still slept on, and Flutters dared not 
leave him. What would Mrs. Boniface think, and how disappointed 
she would be to find that he was not to be trusted ; but there was 
his promise to Bobbin, and he could not go, so he did the next best 
thing, he lay down by his side under the protection of the friendly 
straw and himself fell asleep, while the red-hot embers in the fire- 
place glowed and crackled as though anxious to make the place as 
comfortable as possible. 

Bobbin did not die that night ; he woke with the first ray of 
sunlight that reached the hovel, but he found his faithful little 
watcher awake before him. Flutters thought he looked surprised, 
and perhaps a little disappointed, to find his eyes opening again in 
this world ; at any rate he sighed a little wearily as he seemed 
slowly to realize where he was, then he looked up to Flutters’s face 
and said, with a grateful smile, I knew you would keep your prom- 
ise. I knew you would not leave me.” 

“ But you will let me go now, Bobbin, won’t you ?” said Flutters, 
with a world of entreaty in his voice, and wondering what he would 
do if Bobbin still proved obdurate ; “ you see I haven’t lived so 
very long with the Bonifaces, and they’ll think I’ve run away, and be 


SOME OLD FRIENDS COME TO LIGHT. 183 

sorry they ever trusted me. Fll make up the fire before I go, and 
I’ll be back soon and bring you something to eat and something 
perhaps to make you more comfortable.” 

“ Yes,” said the old man, after what seemed to Flutters a long 
pause, “ I’ll let you go, but not for long, mind that, Flutters; ’cause 
now that I can’t do a thing for myself, 1 believe the Lord says, ‘ Flut- 
ters, you’re to take care of old Bobbin till the time comes for me 
to take him away and care for him myself.’ ” 

“ I believe so, too,” answered Flutters, pushing the thin, gray 
hair back from the old man’s forehead, and trying to make him look 
a little less unkempt and neglected, “ and never you fear but I’ll 
do it, Bobbin.” 

Then in a moment Flutters was gone^ fairly flying home along 
the road, and when he reached the house not stopping so much as 
to say good-morning to old Dinah, who was opening the kitchen win- 
dows, and started back as though she had seen a ghost ; but straight 
past her, and straight up to Captain Boniface’s room. Mrs. Boniface 
slept on a little cot in the corner of the room nearest the door, and 
Flutters thought, and, as it proved, thought rightly, that he could 
give a gentle knock, and waken her without disturbing the Captain. 

“Who is there?” asked a sweet, low voice, a voice whose every 
intonation Flutters had grown to love. 

“ It’s only me — Flutters,” came the ungrammatical whisper, “ but 
I wanted you to know that I’m home all right. Nothing happened 
to me, but I came across an old friend of mine, and I had to stop 
and take care of him.” 

“Wait a moment, dear,” Mrs. Boniface answered, not caring in 
the least that it was by no means customary to address little mulatto 
servant-boys in that familiar fashion. Like dear old Janet, in Mc- 
Donald’s beautiful story, Mrs. Boniface was “one of Gods mothers,” 
with a mother-love broad enough and deep enough to shelter every 
little creature who, like Flutters, needed and longed for the protec- 
tion of a brooding wing. 

Flutters sat down on the wood-box in the hall and waited, and 
in a moment Mrs. Boniface in her soft, blue wrapper, was seated be- 
side him and he was outpouring with breathless eagerness the night’s 
experiences, winding up, when all was told, with, “ and I promised 
to go back as soon as ever I could.” 


184 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT, 


And Flutters did go back as soon as he could, and Josephine 
and Hazel went with him ; and food and clothing, and blankets and 
towels went too, and a dozen other things, such as any one would 
know would add greatly to the comfort of a sick old man who had 
lain down, as he thought, to die, in an empty and wretched dwelling. 
Later in the day, when some of the nearer neighbors had heard 
Bobbin’s sad story, they were anxious, too, to do something for him, 
and before nightfall you would hardly have known the poor little 
shanty. One of them had sent a cot, and Bobbin had been lifted on 
to it ; another, two or three chairs, one of which was a comfortable 
old rocker, and a third a table and some necessary cooking utensils. 
Indeed, Bobbin’s story, as he narrated it to the little group gathered 
around him that morning after Flutters had found him, was sad 
enough to touch anybody’s heart. 

“ I kept on with the troupe,” he told them, “ till we got almost 
to Albany, but I was getting weaker almost every day, and I missed 
Flutters dreadfully. I never knew till the boy was gone how much 
hard work he had saved me in one way and another. So at last, 
and just as I knowed it would be, the manager came to me one day 
and said, ‘We ain’t got no use for you any more. Bobbin. Ye can 
stay behind when we move on to-night.’ An’ I just looked him 
the eye an’ said: ‘All right, sir; but I’m wondering if you’ll not 
be left behind when the Lord’s own troupe moves on to the 
many mansions.’ I knowed I ought not to have spoke like that, 
but there isn’t a harder heart in the world than his, and that’s the 
truth.” 

“ And what did you do then. Bobbin ?” Josephine asked, as she 
sat beside him with tears of indignation standing in her eyes. 

“ Why, right away I began to make my way back to Flutters ; 
somehow I knew I should find him, only when I crawled into this 
hut last night after three weeks of being on the road, I thought it 
might not happen in this world.” 

And so it came about that Bobbin was made perfectly comfort- 
able in the old shanty, for in those days there were no well-ordered 
Homes and Hospitals, for sick and homeless people, and Flutters, 
greatly to his heart’s delight, was established as attendant-in-chief to 
his old friend. 


CHAPTER XXII. 


GOOD-BYE, SIR GUY. 



LEAR and cool dawned the twenty- 
fifth of November, and, joy to 
the heart of every Whig, before 
nightfall not a member of the 
King’s army would be left on 
American soil. Never, I ween, 
had the break of any day in New 
York found so large a number 
of its inhabitants awake to greet 
it. Too excited to sleep, with 
the thought of going home, were 
scores of English soldiers, and 
too excited to sleep, at the 
thought that they were soon to be rid 
of them, was well-nigh every loyal 
Whig throughout the length and 
breadth of the city. So, at a remarkably 
early hour there was an unwonted stir every- 
where, and it seemed as though the very 
horses and cattle in their stalls must have 
divined that something remarkable was in 
the wind. But this great day of consum- 
mation had not arrived without weeks and months of active prep- 
aration. 

Affairs in New York had been sadly mismanaged, and the 
arrival of Sir Guy Carleton, in the spring of 1782, had proved 
a precious boon, alike to Whig and Tory, and during the seven- 
teen months intervening between his arrival and the evacuation, 


i86 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT. 


of the city, on this same twenty-fifth day of November, 1783, 
Sir Guy had had his hands full. One of the heaviest labors 
he had had to perform was the transporting of twelve thousand 
Loyalists from all parts of the colonies, to Nova Scotia, the 
Bahamas and Great Britain, for New York was not the only place 
where the offending Tories were made to feel, and very pointedly, 
too, that their room was considered vastly better than their company. 

But finally all was ready, the “ Royal Order” to evacuate had 
arrived some two months before, and as soon as possible Sir Guy 
had named the day for departure. Now at last the day itself had 
come, and there was scarce a man, woman or child who had not 
planned to enter in some way into its festivities. But up at the 
Boniface’s there was a strong conflict of feeling in one little Tory 
breast. Hazel was naturally in a “ perfect state,” as girls say nowa- 
days. It was most improper that she, an indignant little Loyalist, 
should be a witness to all that day’s jubilation, TmA yet Starlight and 
Flutters and the Marberrys were going over to Bowery Lane to see 
the American troops march in from Harlem, and then into the city to 
see the English troops embark from Fort George, and were going 
to make a fine long day of it, and, after all, what good would it do 
anybody if she stayed at home.^^ So it happened that Hazel’s love 
of military bands and streamers and all sorts of public demonstra- 
tion got the better even of her Tory principles, and after much 
urging on the part of the Marberrys (which she had felt from the 
first could be relied upon), she yielded, and Mrs. Boniface prepared 
a luncheon for instead of '‘just for four,” as Hazel had that 
morning directed. But none of the little party setting forth 
looked forward to the day’s pleasure with quite so keen a relish 
as Flutters. He still remained quite neutral, not finding it easy, 
owing to his peculiar circumstances, to side either with Whig or 
Tory. So it did not matter much to him who were going or who 
were coming, the one dominant thought in his boyish heart simply 
being, that he was off for a day’s fun, of which he had not had a 
great deal lately. For the last week he had been in constant at- 
tendance on old Bobbin, and before that there had been such very 
sad hearts in the Boniface household, owing to the Captain’s illness. 
But for to-day Josephine had volunteered to care for Bobbin, and 
Bobbin himself had consented to spare Flutters, and so, free in every 


GOOD-BYE, SIR GUY. 


187 

sense to give himself up lo whatever enjoyment offered, Flutters 
was ready for “ a lark.” And in just this very sort of thing, you 
boys and girls, who are like Flutters, set us older boys and girls an 
example, for boys and girls we are, all of us, in a way, so long 
as we keep a vestige of naturalness about us. Real sorrows 
rnay weigh down a child’s spirit, and real trials beset him, but, give 
him the chance, even for an hour, to forget the sorrow and the trial, 
and he forgets it ; and when God puts just such opportunities into 
all our lives, is it not for this very purpose of helping us to forget 
for a while ? 

Mrs. Boniface watched the five little friends file down the path- 
way, Flutters bringing up the rear with the capacious lunch-basket, 
and was thankful that there were pleasures, even in such unfavorable 
times, which children might enter into ; and then, perhaps with 
thoughts akin to those we have been writing, about forgetting 
trouble, she turned with a bright smile to the Captain, and proposed 
that they should try and have a happy day too, unmindful of what 
was going on down in the city, and thankful for the serenity of their 
home, still left unmolested. And so Dinah was directed to prepare 
a favorite dish of the Captain’s, and the Captain’s favorite books 
were brought out, and Mrs. Boniface, resolutely putting aside every 
household claim, read aloud for two hours at a sitting, and then 
little Kate came in for a romp and had it, and at one o’clock Dinah 
brought in luncheon for all three on a great japanned tray, and they 
had a very cosey time eating it together. Who would have thought, 
to have looked in upon them, that Evacuation Day was, in point of 
fact, a very sorry day for the Boniface’s } 

Meantime the children gained the Bowery Road, mounted a 
rail fence in a row, like a flock of sparrows, and, with full as much 
chatter, waited for the coming of the troops. 

It seemed strange enough to everybody to think that the entire 
British Army, which had been scattered broadcast throughout the 
vicinity for so many years, was now congregated down in the city, 
and that before many hours there would not be a trace of it left. 
Hazel had certain apprehensions that it was going to seem very 
lonely without them, and when a small detachment of English 
soldiers marched past (the last of a company that had been 
quartered at Kings Bridge) and cheerily called out, “ Good-bye, 


i88 A LOYAL LLTTLE RED~COAT. 

Whiggies/’ to the children, as they sat on the fence, her heart 
entirely misgave her. Was it really loyal for her to be abroad on a 
day of such rejoicing, and how insulting to be called a “ Whiggie,” 
when she was every whit as strong a Tory as the soldiers them- 
selves. But just then the inspiring strains of an approaching 





“Good-bye, Whiggies.” 

band reached her, and the misgivingfs took to themselves wings. 
Nearer and nearer came the music, and soon Starlight recognized 
General Knox in command of two companies of American soldiers. 
They were marching into the city in compliance with a request of 
Sir Guy Carleton’s, so as to be on hand in case of any disorder 


GOOD-BYE, SIR GUY. 


189 


among the Whigs while the English were embarking. Now as 
soon as these American troops should have gotten out of the way, 
the Marberrys had planned a little surprise for the rest of the party,' 
which they knew would prove a great addition to the day’s pleasure! 
So, just as the children had begun to scramble down from the fence, 
with the intention of getting into the city as best they could, up 
drove old Jake, the Marberrys’ coachman, with a farm wagon piled 
high with straw. “Whoa! whoa, da!” called Jake to the Rector’s 
old black horse, and then, bowing and smiling, he said, importantly, 
“ At your sarvice for Evacuation Day, chilluns.” 

Of course Hazel and Starlight and Flutters were delighted at 
this undreamed-of luxury, of being driven about all day, from one 
point of interest to another, and before they climbed into the wagon 
Hazel gave vent to her appreciation by giving both Milly and Tilly 
such a hug as sent the color flushing gratefully into the cheeks of 
those amiable little sisters. 

For once in his life old Jake was in a thoroughly good humor, 
but it is extremely doubtful if anything short of all the pleasurable 
sensations of Evacuation Day could have brought about that de- 
lightful state of affairs. As for the children they were quite ready 
to do anything in the world for Jake, out of sheer gratitude for his 
kindly mood, a state of affairs, by the way, which should have made 
that old party feel very much ashamed of himself. To think that 
it should be such an unusual thing for a man to be kind, as to make 
even children open their eyes for wonder. 

It is impossible fully to describe all the varied enjoyment that 
that day held for the little party, although from the nature of things 
it was hardly to be expected that Hazel was able to get as much 
pleasure out of it as the others. Down into the city they went in 
the wake of General Knox’s men, who came to a halt at the Col- 
lect, and then passing them, Jake took his stand at a point near 
Fort George, from which the children could watch the English sol- 
diers file down into the barges and push off for the vessels lying at 
anchor in the Bay. 

“ There comes Company F,” Starlight at last exclaimed, and in 
a moment the children tumbled out of the wagon, much to old 
Jake’s astonishment, and in another moment were crowding round 
Sergeant Bellows, as he stood waiting his turn to step into the boat. 


190 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT. 


The Sergeant had been up to the Boniface’s for a more formal 
leave-taking the day before, but the children had promised to be on 
hand at the moment of departure, if they could in any wise manage 
it, and the Sergeant’s face showed his delight, when he spied them 
come bounding toward him. 

There were tears in Hazel’s eyes as the boat veered off from the 
dock, and tears in the Marberrys’ eyes out of sympathy for Hazel, but 
of course the boys pretended they saw nothing whatever to feel sorry 
about. In the excitement, however. Flutters called out in a very 
significant tone, “ Don’t you forget. Sergeant,” and the Sergeant re- 
plied in rather a husky voice, “Never you lear, my boy !” 

“ Forget what?” questioned Hazel, feeling somehow that a little 
body-servant ought scarcely to have any private matters on hand. 
And then Flutters, realizing how foolish he had been to make pub- 
lic his affairs in that fashion, felt constrained to answer, “ Oh, noth- 
ing,” to Hazel’s question, which disrespect on his part offended the 
dignity of his little mistress, and caused her to treat him with much 
coolness for the space of the next two minutes, at the end of which, 
however, she resumed her wonted manner, having forgotten by that 
time any reason for acting otherwise. 

Company F had come about mid-way in the order of embarking, 
and as it neared one o’clock, the extreme rear guard began to file 
into the barges, while the American troops moved silently forward 
and took possession of the Fort, and then it was that General Knox, 
with a chosen few, galloped back to meet and escort General Wash- 
ington and Governor Clinton into the city. For old Jake’s party 
this in-between time seemed to offer th6 most favorable opportunity 
for luncheon, and with appetites keenly whetted by their long 
morning in the open air, the children “ fell to,” and as soon as Jake 
had tied a bag of oats over black Jennie’s head, he took his seat at 
the back of the wagon, and was himself regaled with a much larger 
portion of the Boniface luncheon than he in any wise deserved. If 
a body chances to be very hungry, and at the same time so fortunate 
as to have the wherewithal to satisfy that hunger, it is astonishing 
how absorbing the process of eating may become, and so I doubt 
if, for a while, the thoughts of the little company in the Rector’s 
wagon, rose above the level of the biscuits they were enjoying or 
were otherwise occupied than with the great acceptableness of cook- 


GOOD-BYE, SIR GUY, 19 1 

ies, apple jelly, and some other inviting edibles; and yet, only think ! 
this was the 25th of November, 1783. Out there beyond them on 
the broad sunshine of the Bay, the last of the English Army were 
turning their backs upon America, and above them toward Harlem, 
a large company of loyal Americans were joyfully forming into rank 
and file to take public possession of the city so dearly loved, and 
that had been for years under English rule. Yes, American history 
was making very fast during that eventful November noontide, and 
yet so imperative are the demands of poor human nature, that even 
such a thorough-going little Whig as Starlight became for the time 
being so deeply absorbed in bread and cheese as to grow unmindful 
of exultant Whigs and departing Tories. 

But after the luncheon was all disposed of, save a few crumbs 
thrown over the wagon side to a stray dog, who had long been be- 
seechingly eying the children, their minds at once reverted to 
matters of general importance, and it was decided to drive back to 
some point on Broadway from which they could watch the proces- 
sion, and Jennie was urged into a clumsy canter by way of making 
up for lost time. As it was they had some difficulty in gaining 
even a fair position on the line of march, and secured that none too 
soon, for the sound of music in the distance was growing more and 
more distinct, and in another second the head of the procession 
came into view. And what a procession it proved ! although 
there was no show of military pomp or glory. That was quite im- 
possible, since the greater part of the American Army had already 
been disbanded, and those that were left to participate in the day’s 
jubilation owned nothing better than shabby uniforms which had 
seen hard service, and in many cases even these poor remnants had 
need to be supplemented with coats or trousers of most unmilitary 
aspect. But, notwithstanding all this, it was a grand procession. 
General Washington and Governor Clinton on horseback, followed 
by their suites, were at its head ; then came the Lieutenant Gover- 
nor and the members of the Legislature; following them, the officers 
of the army, and a large body of prominent citizens, and lastly the 
military, whose very shabbiness, because of its significance, served 
but to add to the interest they excited. 

The sun was setting behind the New Jersey hills before the 
procession was truly over, and then, as there was nothing more to 



“ General Washington and Governor Clinton headed the procession, 


GOOD-BYE, SIR GUY. 


193 


be seen, and they were thoroughly weary besides, the children 
assented to Jake’s proposition to turn Jennie’s head homeward. 
When they neared the vicinity of old Bobbin’s shanty. Flutters 
crept to the back of the wagon prepared to drop at the right 
moment. 

“Where’s Flutters going asked the Marberrys. 

“ Oh, he has to take care of old Bobbin, now,” Hazel explained 
with a sigh ; “ but you can’t imagine how inconvenient it is for me,” 
for her ladyship had taken very kindly to this having a willing little 
servant at her beck and call Rather too kindly, Mrs. Boniface 
thought, and she was not sorry to have Flutters’s time so fully 
occupied as to leave none of it at Hazel’s disposal Soon after 
Flutters’s departure the little party relaxed into silence, talked out 
and tired out, and as Jake showed some signs, now that the excite- 
ment of the day was over, of resuming his wonted surliness. Star- 
light and Hazel were not the least sorry when old Jennie, in the 
perfect stillness of the early November twilight, came to a stand- 
still at the Boniface gate. 


CHAPTER XXIII. 



FLUTTERS LOSES ONE OF THE OLD 
FRIENDS. 

OSEPPIINE had stood in the 
doorway of the little cottage 
half a dozen times within the 
last hour peering anxiously 
down the road in search of Flut- 
ters, and now that she discov- 
ered him coming cross-cut 
through the meadow near which 
he had left the wagon, no one 
could have told how relieved 
she felt. 

“ Oh, Flutters, Pm so glad 
you’ve come !” she called softly, 
as soon as he came within speaking 
distance, and then immediately turned 
back into the room. Flutters followed 
her on tip-toe, for she had motioned him to come in quietly. “ What 
is the matter he asked, going close to Bobbin’s cot. 

“ Oh, I don’t know,” Josephine whispered, with tears of anxious 
sympathy filling her gray eyes ; “ we had had a lovely talk together, 
and then he asked me to read out of a book, your Prayer-Book, 
he said it was, and so I read ever so many psalms from the 
Psalter, till suddenly looking up I saw that he was in great pain, 
and when I spoke to him he seemed neither to see nor hear me. 
In a little while the pain passed over, and ever since he has lain 
there so still that I have had to put my ear down very close to 
make sure that he was breathing.” 


FLUTTERS LOSES ONE OF THE OLD FRIENDS. 


^95 


“ Dear old Bobbin,” said Flutters, stroking the thin gray hair. 
The well-known voice, or perhaps the gentle touch, seemed to rouse 
him, for he slowly opened his eyes and seeing Flutters, smiled. 

“ You’ll not try to keep me this time,” he said slowly, looking 
up at Flutters beseechingly, but in a voice too low and weak for 
even Josephine to hear. 

“ He said not to try to keep him this time,” Flutters explained, 
but don’t you think I ought to go right away for a doctor?” 

Bobbin moved his head entreatingly from side to side, so 
Josephine said : “ Well, perhaps not yet. Flutters, he seems so much 
more comfortable now,” whereupon Bobbin looked the thanks 
he felt. After a while, when he had once again mustered strength, 
he said : “ Flutters, the little book.” 

Flutters, knowing well enough what he meant, took the Prayer- 
Book which had been soon restored to Bobbin after that night when 
he had first joyfully discovered it, and turning to the selections for 
the twenty-fifth day of the month began to read. Josephine drew a 
chair to the fireplace and sat listening, with her hands folded in her 
lap, while Bobbin never took his eyes from Flutters’s face, as he sat 
close beside him so that he might hear distinctly. 

The little hut looked very cheery and cosey, converted as it had 
been into such a comfortable shelter, more comfortable indeed than 
Bobbin had ever known, and at a time, too, when a warm room 
and a quiet one meant more to him than it could have meant at 
any time in all his life before. . But the light in the room was mo- 
mentarily growing more and more dim, and Flutters had to hold 
the book high in his hand toward the little window in order to 
see at all. Gradually Bobbin’s tired eyes closed, and the last words 
that fell on his ears were these : “ My soul has longed for Thy salva- 
tion and I have a good hope because of Thy Word. Mine eyes 
long sore for Thy Word, saying. Oh, when wilt Thou comfort me.^^” 
Flutters finished the selection and looked up. “ Miss Josephine !” 
was all he found words to say, but both of them knew in a moment 
that in very truth “ Evacuation Day” had come for Bobbin too, 
evacuation from all the sorrows of a long, hard life. 

“I am not sorry,” said Josephine, looking down on the calm 
face from which all the care seemed at once to have vanished. 

“ Nor I,” said Flutters, “ but he was such a good friend to me 


196 


A LOYAL LITTLE RED-COAT 


when no one else cared,” and .then, unable to keep the tears back, 
he laid his arm on Bobbin’s bed, and burying his face upon it, cried 
bitterly. 

There was something sacred about this deep sense of personal 
loss that was finding vent in Flutters’s hot tears, and for a while 
Josephine hesitated to intrude upon it. She moved quietly about 
the room setting its few little articles to rights, and then when there 
was nothing else to be done, and Flutters had gotten himself some- 
what in hand, she sat down by his side. 

“ What do you know about Bobbin’s history. Flutters T she 
asked. 

“ Not much,” trying to master the emotion that made it difficult 
to speak; “ he never liked to talk about himself, but he told me 
once he had always been sort of alone ever since he could re- 
member, and that he hadn’t a relative in the world.” 

Two days afterward, Bobbin was laid away in a corner of the little 
cemetery surrounding St. George’s Church, Mr. Marberry having 
gained the consent of the Vestry to have him buried there. Mr. 
Marberry read the service from Flutters’s own Prayer-Book, and 
about the grave of the old man whose life had been so lonely, 
gathered at the last a little company of loving friends. It seemed 
to Flutters as if, with Bobbin’s death, the chapter of his life that 
had to do with the wretched circus had been forever closed, but, oh, 
how thankful he was to have been able to make so calm and peace- 
ful the last days of the only friend it had ever given him. Once 
again the road-side cottage was dismantled of everything that made 
it homelike, and as the bleak wintry winds whistled round and 
through it, who would have thought that such a little while ago an 
old man had been comfortably housed there, and that it was only 
now left tenantless, because its occupant no longer had need of any 
earthly shelter. 


CHAPTER XXIV. 


TWO IMPORTANT LETTERS. 



EVACUATION DAY, with 
all its excitement, was soon 
followed by that day well- 
nigh as eventful, when on 
the Fourth of December 
General Washington took 
final leave of his officers “ in 
the great historic room’’ at 
Fraunces Tavern, a leave- 
taking that proved a very 
touching and trying ordeal 
both for him and for them. 
Starlight and Flutters, who 
had contrived to be in the fore- 
front of the crowd that looked 
on, could have told you how 
plainly strong emotion was be- 
trayed on the brave General’s 
face, as he passed out from the 
tavern, and down to the barge 
that was waiting to convey him to 
Paulus Hook on his way to Con- 
gress. 

But after that day, affairs settled down into much quieter 
channels than they had known for some time — that is, at any rate as 
far as the people with whom we have most to do are concerned. 
The Van Vleets had asked Aunt Frances to make her home with 
them indefinitely, and though still faintly cherishing the hope that 


198 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED^COAT. 


she might have her own home back again some day, she had ac- 
cepted their invitation, and opened a little school among the farm- 
ers’ children in the neighborhood. Starlight was one of her most 
promising pupils, and so his visits to Kings Bridge were of necessity 
less frequent than they used to be. In that matter. Cousin Harry 
had a great advantage over him, for having moved to New York in 
order to be near his office, what more natural, and, as Harry would 
have said, “ what more delightful,” than to spend all his evenings at 
the Bonifaces.^ And what a blessing those visits were to them, 
only they themselves could have told you. As soon as he arrived 
he would first go upstairs and have a talk with the Captain, ransack- 
ing his mind for ever}/ thing that could by any possibility interest 
him ; then when he had told the little or much that he had to tell, 
or saw that he was tiring him, down he would go to the sitting- 
room, have a romp with Bonny Kate, if she had managed to stay up 
past her bed-time, or possibly a game of some sort with Hazel and 
Flutters, but it generally happened that after a while there was no 
one left to talk to save Josephine, and of course you know better 
than to think that Harry minded that. Josephine had generally 
some bit of work in hand, and could not afford to simply laugh and 
chat the evening away, with her pretty hands lying idle in her lap, 
as perhaps is the case with your older sister, when some friend comes 
to call. No, indeed ! it was necessary in those days for her to 
stitch, and stitch industriously in every available moment, if the 
Boniface needs were to be in any wise met ; nor did these two 
young people laugh and chat very much either — the times were 
rather too serious for that ; not that they did not have a happy time 
of it, and sometimes were actually merry, but, as a rule, they seemed 
to have something of importance to quietly talk over. 

Meantime the winter came and went, and spring began to be 
felt in the air, and an occasional early bird note, or a bunch of 
pussy willow by the road-side, bore witness to the fact that it was 
slowly but surely coming. 

It had seemed a long, long winter to Mrs. Boniface. For many 
weeks she had lived the most retired life possible. Few had come 
to see her, and there were but one or two friends left whom she 
cared to go and see. If it had not been for Harry Avery, they 
would scarce have .had any communication with the outside world. 


TJVO IMPORTANT LETTERS. 


199 


There had been no further threats made against Captain Boniface. 
Even the most bitter of his enemies would hardly have found it in 
his heart to persecute a man who was so hopelessly paralyzed as 
never to be able to walk again ; but there was something very sig- 
nificant in the fact that they simply left him alone. None of them 
in a relenting spirit had called to inquire how he was, and if any of 
the old friends, who had treated him so cruelly that night at the 
Assembly, ever felt ashamed of their behavior, they never had the 
grace to own it. Indeed, it is terrible to think how that great 
mastering passion, which we proudly call patriotism, sometimes 
seems to smother every noble and natural impulse. 

Soon after the Assembly, in fact that very night, Captain Boni- 
face had told his wife of the murders in South Carolina, and it 
seemed to her then as though every spark of sympathy with the 
colonies and colonial interests had that moment died within her. 
She was by far too noble to let actual hatred take its place ; but she 
longed with all her heart for old England, where she had been 
born, and to turn her back on this new country which had treated 
her so harshly. So Mrs. Boniface waited, with no little anxiety, for 
the arrival of the long-looked-for letter, cherishing the fervent hope 
that her father would send for them all to come to him, planning 
thoughtfully all the details of their journey, and yet never once 
daring to put her hope into words. It might happen that, although 
willing enough to help them, he would not propose to do it by 
having her little family sweep down upon him and rob the old 
rectory of the quiet it had known so long, and which must be very 
grateful to him in his old age. But at last the letter came, and 
Mrs. Boniface straightway carried it off to Flutters’s room, and 
closed the door and locked it. Her hands trembled as she broke 
the seal. What were they to do? that was the question that had 
anxiously confronted her for several long, weary months ; but 
always she had simply to postpone any attempt to answer it, wait- 
ing for this letter; and now it was in her hand what would it tell 
her ? 

It proved to be a long, long letter, and she read it slowly 
through, word by word ; then she buried her face in her hands and 
cried ; but sometimes people cry for joy and not for sorrow. 

Late in the afternoon of the same day. Flutters was grooming 


200 


A LOYAL LLTTLE LEE-COAT. 


Gladys in the barn, accompanying the process with a queer, buzz- 
ing noise, such as I believe is quite common to grooming the 
world over. 

“ Flutters, where are you?” called Hazel, coming into the barn 
in search of him. 

“Here with Gladys, Miss Hazel.” 

“What do you think. Flutters?” and then Hazel climbed up and 
seated herself on the edge of Gladys’s trough, before adding: 

“We are going to England to live with grandpa. Mother says 
he’s just the dearest old man, and he’s sent for us all to come. He 
lives in a lovely rectory in Cheshire.” 

“You don’t mean it. Miss Hazel!” said Flutters, his breath 
quite taken away. 

“ And of course you will go with me. Flutters. • Mother says 
you may.” 

“ It’s very kind of you to be willing to take me,” Flutters 
managed to reply, but at the same time realized that he would do 
almost anything rather than go back to England, and to the very 
same county, too, from which he had come; and he leaned down, 
apparently to brush some straw from one of Gladys’s legs, but 
really to hide the tears of bitter disappointment that had sprung 
unbidden into his eyes. Fortunately, the ruse succeeded very well. 
Hazel never dreaming but what he was as delighted with the news 
as she herself. 

“ I can’t tell you how glad I am to go. Flutters, although 
mother says we probably never should have gone, if it had not 
been for father’s illness. Things are getting so much quieter now 
that she thinks people would have let us alone, and father could, 
perhaps, have found some way to make a living, because, you see, 
we haven’t much money left since the war; but you knew that. 
Flutters?” 

Flutters sort of half nodded yes, seeing that something was 
expected of him, but he was not paying close attention to what 
Hazel was saying. How could he bear to have them go and leave 
him alone in America, and whatever should he do ? were the 
thoughts that were filling his mind. It seemed as though every 
hair on Gladys’s back was bristling with the same sad questions, 
and then the thought came to him that Gladys herself would prob- 



TWO IMPORTANT LETTERS. 201 

ably be left behind, too, and he laid his hand affectionately on her 
prettily arched neck. 

“ I shall be glad to live in a King’s country,” Hazel resumed. 


“ We are going to England to live with Grandpa.” 


after a little pause, “ and not where everybody’s as good as every- 
body else, and where they don’t have princes and princesses, and 
lovely palaces for them to live in. But there’s one thing I mean to 


202 


A LOYAL LITTLE TEE COAT. 


do as soon as ever I reach there, and that is, to get presented at 
Court, and tell King George how the prisoners were treated on the 
‘Jersey.’ He ought to know about it, and when he does, I just 
guess those men will get the punishment they deserve and her 
cheeks glowed with excitement at the thought of the forthcoming 
interview. “ Flutters, do you know anything about the South of 
England— about Cheshire 

“ Yes, something,” answered Flutters, getting a little better com- 
mand of himself. “In what part of it does your grandfather live 

“ Feltstone, I think.” 

Flutters gave a sigh of relief. Feltstone was several miles from 
Burnham, his old home, but it wasn’t worth while to think of that ; 
for back to England he would not go. To be sure, there was a 
chance that if Sergeant Bellows had found his father that he might 
be sent for; but he could not bear to face that alternative, and would 
not till he had to. And then, wondering if he ever would hear from 
the Sergeant, he remembered that he had half-hoped and half-feared 
that the “ Blue Bird,” which had brought Mrs. Boniface’s letter, 
would also bring one for him. 

As was to b^e expected, Hazel chatted on with much volubility 
about the numerous arrangements for the coming journey, and how 
they would all have to try to make everything as comfortable as pos- 
sible for her father. Now and then she felt conscious of a lack of 
enthusiasm on Flutters’s part, but the thought was only momentary, 
and her active little mind at once travelled off in some new line of 
delightful anticipation. All Flutters had to do was occasionally to 
answer a question. He thought best not to say anything to Flazel 
about not going with them until he should have talked with Mrs. 
Boniface. Meantime Gladys’s grooming was completed, and as her 
pretty mane had been plaited by Hazel, as she talked, into half a 
dozen tight braids, she looked quite as prim and trig as a little old 
maid on a Sunday. 

“ Let’s go up to the house, now,” said Hazel ; “or, no, I’ll tell 
you, let’s go up to the Marberrys and tell them.” 

“ I can’t go. Miss Hazel; your mother said she had something 
for me to do in the house.” Whereupon Hazel pouted a little, 
thinking it more fitting, no doubt, that body-servants should obey 
their mistresses rather than their mistresses’ mothers, but at the 


TWO IMPORTANT LETTERS. 


203 

same time seeing that it was useless for her to contend against the 
force of circumstances, which in those days of much to do and few 
to do it, made Flutters a most useful member of the household. 

“There are the M ar berry s, now,” she cried, discovering them 
coming in at the gate in their usual two-abreast fashion. 

“ Flutters,” cried Milly, as they both broke into a little run, 
“here’s a letter for you; it came up with our mail by mistake.” 
Flutters reached for it eagerly. 

“ It’s directed just ‘ Flutters,’ care of Captain Boniface,” ven- 
tured Tilly ; “ that’s queer, isn’t it Haven’t you any other name. 
Flutters T 

“ Not now,” was Flutters’s rather remarkable answer, and then he 
ran back to the barn as if he had forgotten something important, 
but really, because, like Mrs. Boniface, he did not want to have any 
one “ round” when he read his letter. He chose, too, to take his seat 
just where Hazel had been sitting, before he opened it. Gladys 
looked on with wide-eyed pony astonishment at this unwonted ap- 
propriation of her own individual stall, but seemed, notwithstanding, 
to regard the matter good-naturedly. 

If it were feasible to have schools for ponies, and Gladys had 
had the benefit thereof, and at the same time no better manners 
than to have looked over Flutters’s shoulder, this is what she might 
have read “just as easy as anything,” as you children say: 

The Bunxh of Grapes, 

Burnham, Cheshire, England, 

February 23d, 1784. 

My dear Flutters : As perceived by the heading of this let- 
ter, I write from the inn in your father’s village, to which place I 
made haste to journey so soon as I was favored with my furlough. 
And now, my dear Flutters, I have sad news to break to you, and 
for which you must nerve yourself, like the plucky little fellow that 
you are. Your good father is no longer a sojourner in this sad 
world of ours. He died after a very short illness, on the third of 
last September. I went to see his widow, told her I had some 
knowledge of you, and that if your father had left any message I 
would send it to you. She said she could not remember any, save 
that he used sometimes to say that he would like to know if you 


204 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT, 


were well cared for. She does not seem to have as much heart as 
most women, and blest if I blame you much for running off as you 
did. I think your father left very little money, as folks say that your 
stepmother will have to do something to support herself and her 
children. Wishing I had better news to send you, Flutters, and 
with my dutiful respects to the dear Bonifaces, I close this letter — 
the longest I ever wrote in my life — and I hope never again to be 
obliged to write such another. 

Yours dutifully, 

R. A. Bellows. 

“ Oh, Gladys,” cried Flutters, when he had finished reading, and, 
leaning his head against the pony’s head, he sobbed aloud. Such a 
whirl of emotion as that letter awoke for Flutters could not be 
put into words, and in his imagination he seemed to see his father’s 
grave and old Bobbin’s side by side. The Bonifaces were all he had 
left now, and they, they were going to leave him ; but, no, and 
a new light seemed to flash in on his mind — what was there now to 
hinder his going with them? His stepmother would never claim 
him. Indeed, she need never know he was in England, and so there 
was a bright side to Flutters’s sorrow, and after a while he walked 
quietly out from the barn with the Sergeant’s letter in his hand, and 
straight to Mrs. Boniface, whom he found in the Captain’s room, 
and then and there he told them all his story, and after the telling 
felt he was even nearer and dearer to his new friends than ever he 
had been before. 

Only Gladys ever knew how intense had been Flutters’s first sor^ 
row on reading the Sergeant’s letter, but she was such a harum- 
scarum pony that probably the memory of it went out of her head 
full as quickly as the hairs, wet by Flutters’s tears, dried on her fore- 
head. 


CHAPTER XXV. 


A HAPPY DAY FOR AUNT FRANCES. 




OOD news or sorrow- 
ful news does not al- 
ways come to one in 
the form of a care- 
fully worded let- 
ter, as with Mrs. 
Boniface and 
Flutters, nor 
when, because a 
letter of some 
sort is expected, 
one is in a way 
prepared for it. 
More often it 
comes when you 
are least on the 
lookout for it, 
and when life is 
running on un- 
eventfully in 
worn grooves, as 
though it must 
run on forever.. 
And in this same- 
unanticipated fashion- 
some very good news came to- 
Aunt Frances. 

was just at sunset, and she was out on the river in a little 


so 






206 


A LOYAL LLTTLE LEE-COAT. 


boat with Starlight. It had been one of those days that sometimes 
come in the latter part of May as harbingers of summer. The 
school-room had been close and warm, and Aunt Frances had left it 
with a headache, so that Starlight, with a loving thoughtfulness that 
always went straight to her heart, had proposed a row in the cool, 
early-evening air of the river, and Aunt Frances had accepted. 

“ Do not row hard, dear,” she said; “just paddle around leisurely 
not far from the shore. I like it just as well;” and Starlight, who 
also felt a little enervated by the languid day, was glad to take her at 
her word. Indeed, none of the people of this little story were feel- 
ing very bright and cheery just then. ‘ Rather heavy-hearted,’ would 
have described them all in greater or less degree, and the fact that 
the Bonifaces were going away had much to do therewith. Even 
Hazel’s rosy anticipations of life under Old England’s glorious mon- 
archy, paled a little, as she realized that such dear friends as Aunt 
Frances, Starlight, and the Marberrys must be left behind, as well as 
everything else familiar to her childhood. It had been decided that 
the Bonifaces should sail in the “ Blue Bird,” when she returned to 
England in the middle of June, and the sight of her, as she lay at 
anchor in the harbor, was such a depressing one to Starlight, that he 
contrived, as they rowed about on the river, to keep his back turned 
toward her as much as possible. 

“ Then it is really settled. Starlight, that the Bonifaces are go- 
ing said Aunt Frances, looking over toward the ship, and break- 
ing a long pause, during which they had both sat thoughtfully 
silent. 

“Yes,” Starlight answered resting on his oars. “I feel awfully 
sorry for them.” 

“ But they are not sorry for themselves, are they and Aunt 
Frances drawing up her sleeve put her hand over the boat’s side 
that the cool water might splash against it. “ I imagined that Mrs. 
Boniface was glad to go back to England and to her father, whom 
she has not seen since she was married, twenty-five years ago.” 

“ Oh, yes, of course, she is glad on some accounts, but after all 
they go because they must ; and, besides, it’s hard to go back to the 
country you came from without having made a success of things.” 

“ But the war is entirely responsible for all the Captain’s troubles 
— everybody knows that well enough, and if any one deserves a pen- 


A HAPPY DAY FOP AUNT FRANCES. 


207 


sion from the Crown he certainly does. He has sacrificed health 
and friends and property in the service of the King.” 

“ That’s so,” said Starlight, “ and it’s a cruel shame that people 
like the Bonifaces shouldn’t be treated decently, and that people 
like us, Aunt Frances, shouldn’t be allowed to live in the houses 
that belong to us.” 

“ Sh — , Starlight,” said Aunt Frances, “there are some things you 
know that it is better not to talk about any more ; it only stirs us up 
and to no purpose;” whereupon Starlight obediently lapsed into 
silence, and nothing more was said till Aunt Frances, discovering a 
row-boat in the middle of the river, coming toward them, exclaimed, 
“ Who’s that, I wonder!” for boats were not so numerous in those 
days as to come and go without notice. Starlight wondered too, 
but continued to row about in an aimless fashion, till first thing 
they knew the approaching boat was quite close upon them. 

“ Who can it be 7 ' said Aunt Frances, softly, and Starlight had 
only time to reply, “ It looks a little like Captain Wadsworth,” and 
Aunt Frances to see that he was right in his conjecture, before the 
boat came within speaking distance, and the Captain, touching his 
hat, said politely, “ Miss Avery, I believe.” 

“ Yes, Captain Wadsworth for although Aunt Frances and the 
Captain had never before exchanged words, their faces were well 
known to each other. “ Did you wish to see me.^^” she added, some- 
what coldly. 

The Captain was too much of a gentleman to show that he 
noticed her chilling manner, and remarked quite casually, “ I merely 
came over to tell you that I have decided after all to give up the 
idea of making my home in this country, and that your home is at 
your disposal.” 

“ What do you mean 7 ' said Aunt Frances, unable to believe 
that she heard aright. As for Starlight, he lost an oar overboard 
from sheer excitement, which the man who was rowing Captain 
Wadsworth was kind enough to fish out for him. 

“ I mean,” said the Captain, “ that you are free to enter your 
own home at once ; I propose to sail for England very soon and 
have already vacated it.” 

“ 1 do not understand you,” for Aunt Frances was more confused 
than she had ever been in her life. “ I can pay nothing for it. If 


2o8 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT. 


you consider that you have a right to live in it, you must consider 
that you also have a right to sell it.” 

The Captain bit his lip, at a loss what to say, and Aunt Frances 
realized that she was acting unkindly and perhaps rudely. 

“ Do you mean,” she asked, “that there is nothing for me to do 
but simply to walk into my old home?” and her face brightened 
unconsciously as she spoke. 

“ That is exactly what I mean, Miss Avery.” 

“ You are very kind. Captain Wadsworth. You can hardly 
wonder, I am sure, that I cannot find words in which to thank you.” 

“Why should you thank me .^” the Colonel replied half mis- 
chievously. “ You have felt all along that the place rightfully be- 
longed to you.” 

“ But you had the law on your side, so what did it matter how I 
thought or felt T 

“ It mattered a great deal. Miss Avery; so much that, law on 
my side or no, I confess to you that I have not felt very comfort- 
able in your home, particularly since I moved my men out, and have 
had the place to myself. Indeed, I’ve never really felt at home 
in the country, and half regret having resigned my commission.” 

“ You can imagine that all this is a great surprise to me,” said 
Aunt Frances, never looking handsomer in her life, “ though I 
acknowledge having cherished just a faint little hope lately that it 
might come about some day.” 

“ Why lately, if I may ask. Miss Avery T 

“ Because,” said Aunt Frances, blushing a little, “ Colonel Ham- 
ilton told me at the Assembly that he was sorry to have been the 
means of depriving me of my home, and that he would endeavor to 
make any reparation within his power. Will you think me rude in 
asking if he has in any way influenced your decision T 

“ Colonel Hamilton ? No, not in the least ; but I believe the ar- 
guments of a certain little woman, who came to me several months 
ago, have had much to do with it.” 

“ I know who it was,” exclaimed Starlight, eagerly, unable to 
keep silent another moment ; “ I believe it was Hazel Boniface.” 

“ And I believe you are her friend, ‘Starlight,’” said the Captain, 
having made up his mind to that fact much earlier in the conversa- 
tion. 


A HAPPY HAY FOP AUNT FRANCES. 


209 


Starlight said “Yes, sir,” with a beaming look which plainly de- 
clared that he was proud to have that honor. 

All this while Peter, the Captain’s man, had sat an interested 
listener, enjoying e^verything with much the same relish perhaps as 
you or I would enjoy the happy ending of a rather harrowing play, 
only this was by so much the better, because it was real and not 
make believe.” To keep the boats from drifting apart, Peter kept 
a firm hand upon the rail of Starlight’s boat, and Starlight’s upon 
his. Indeed, I think there was a tacit understanding between them 
that on no account were those two boats to be allowed to diverge 
a hair’s-breadth until this whole delightful matter should be unalter- 
ably settled. 

^ Of course Starlight’s remark about Hazel had been another sur- 
prise to Aunt Frances, and when Captain Wadsworth went on to 
tell her all about Hazel’s call in the warm September weather of 
the preceding autumn, and how deep a hold her childish earnest- 
ness had taken upon him, it seemed to Aunt Frances as though she 
could not wait to give her successful little champion such a hug as 
she had never had in her life before. 

“ She went to see Colonel Hamilton too,” said Starlight in the 
pause that followed Captain Wadsworth’s narration. 

“ Then perhaps that partly accounts for Colonel Hamilton’s 
kind feeling,” said Aunt Frances slowly, as a new light seemed to 
shine in upon the whole transaction. 

“ I think it highly probable. Miss Avery. The old prophecy 
that a little child shall lead them is more often fulfilled, even in this 
world, I think, than most of us have any idea of.” 

Meantime the current of the river had carried the boats close 
into shore, and Aunt Frances, with the charm of manner that was 
always natural to her, asked the Captain to come up to the house, 
and he came up, and accepted the Van Vleets’ cordial invitation to 
stay to supper, and not until the moon was high over the river did 
he call to Peter to row him back to New York; and if the 
Colonel’s body had grown as light as his heart, old Peter’s load 
would have been scarce heavier than a feather. 


CHAPTER XXVI. 


THE “ BLUE bird” WEIGHS ANCHOR. 



O, Starlight, I’m sorry, but 
I do not see how you can 
possibly be of the least use 
in the world.” 

Captain Lewis tried to 
speak kindly, but, big boy 
or no, real tears stood in 
Starlight’s eyes. “ Why, 
do you feel as badly as 
that. Starlight?” 

Starlight gave a nod 
which meant that he did 
feel just as badly as that, 
and at the same time suc- 
ceeded in choking down what 
he feared might have proved 
an audible little sob. 

“ Well, then, let me see,” 
and the Captain leaned for- 
ward on his rude desk and 
thought a moment. They 
were in the cabin of the “ Blue 
Bird,” whither Starlight had 
rowed over that morning, with such a favor to ask of the “ Blue 
Bird’s” Captain as he never yet had asked of anybody. 

“ And yet you could do little odds and ends for me now, 
couldn’t you T continued the Captain, after what seemed to Star- 
light a never-ending pause. 


THE ^^BLUE BIRD" WEIGHS ANCHOR. 


21 I 


“ Yes, sir,” he answered frankly, brushing away his tears with his 
sleeve in awkward boy fashion ; “I’m sure I could save you ever so 
many steps. You know I wouldn’t think of going unless I really 
felt I could work my passage.” 

“ You are a proud little fellow, Job, but, then, I like your spirit, 
and if you won’t take the voyage as a cabin passenger at my invita- 
tion, why, then, you shall go as you propose. Of course your Aunt 
has given her consent.” 

“ I have not asked her yet, sir. I thought it would be half the 
battle to have your permission first.” 

The Captain laughed heartily over Starlight’s diplomacy, and 
then they talked on for a quarter of an hour longer, arranging the 
details of the journey that was to be, if only Aunt Frances could be 
persuaded to give her consent — a pretty big if, by the way. At the 
end of that time Starlight, remembering that the Captain must have 
many things to attend to, said good-afternoon, shaking his rough 
sailor hand with a world of gratitude in his happy face. Then he 
clambered nimbly down the “ Blue Bird’s” ladder, and jumping into 
his boat, rowed off toward New York and toward home, for, 
scarcely able to believe their senses. Aunt Frances and Starlight 
were back in the old house, with everything so nearly restored to 
what it had been before that those two years in the Van Vleet 
homestead already seemed half a dream. 

And now the 15th of June had dawned, and as the “Blue 
Bird” was to sail that afternoon, everything was in readiness for the 
departure of the Bonifaces, and everything was in readiness for 
something else, too, which was nothing more nor less than a wed- 
ding at Aunt Frances’s. And who do you suppose were going to be 
married ? Who, to be sure, but Josephine and Harry, and Josephine 
was to stay in America, and her home was to be right there in the 
old house with Aunt Frances. Strange, wasn’t it, that she should 
be willing to stay behind, when all the family were going away 
across the ocean to live in England ? But that is one of the things 
that is often happening in this queer world of ours, and the beauty 
of it is that it is all right and beautiful, and just as the good Father 
Himself would have it. And so Josephine was married at noon in 
Aunt Frances’s parlor, and even her father was there, for it had been 
arranged that the ceremony should be performed when the Boni- 


212 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT. 


faces were on their way to the “ Blue Bird,” and when it would be an 
easy matter simply to carry the Captain in and lift him on to the 
broad lounge in the sitting-room. 

There was something sad in the fact that, so strong was party 
feeling everywhere, that it had been difficult to find in the neigh- 
borhood the four men needed to accomplish the moving of Captain 
Boniface into the city and then out to the ship ; four men, that is, 
who did not feel that they had some sort of grudge against the 
English officer. But Jake, the Marberrys’ man, had at last pressed 
into the service three others of his race, who bore Captain Bon- 
iface no ill-will. It was touching to see with what tender care the 
four strong fellows lifted their helpless burden, for although the 
Captain had recovered, as Dr. Melville said he would, partial use of 
his arms and hands, he was still powerless to take a single step. 

Mr. Marberry naturally officiated at the wedding, and the twins, 
of course, were there, smiling and sweet, though possibly a little self- 
conscious, in their new white dresses, with soft silk sashes, tied in 
two exactly similar bows in the middle of their straight little backs. 
And the Van Vleets were there, and Miss Pauline, who looked 
rather mystified at the whole proceeding, and Captain Wadsworth 
besides, and Colonel and Mrs. Hamilton, the two latter of whom 
were invited because of Harry’s position in the Colonel’s office. 

It was doubtless a real satisfaction to Captain Wadsworth and 
Colonel Hamilton to be present, though, when you come to think 
of it, it was rather a remarkable state of things. 

Here they were attending a wedding in the very house that 
they had lawfully succeeded in wresting from Miss Avery, and here 
she was permanently established in her own home again, with the 
Captain out of it, and of his own accord too. It was strange indeed 
how it had all come about, and stranger still to think that a little 
girl of ten, mustering up sufficient courage to call upon two strange 
gentlemen several months before, had had much to do with bring- 
ing about this delightful change in affairs; but, as we all hear so 
often that we do not half take in the blessed truth of it, “ God’s 
ways are not as our ways,” and the trifles, as we think them, are 
likely to prove anything but trifles. 

It was more than a delight to Harry to have Colonel Hamilton 
present at his wedding, for although his employer was his senior by 


THE ^^BLUE BIRD'^ WEIGHS ANCHOR. 213 

only a few years, Harry looked up to him with an admiring vener- 
ation amounting almost to worship. There was something about 
Alexander Hamilton that inspired this sort of devotion, an air. 



“The lovingest sort of a kiss.” 


some have said, of serious, half-sad thoughtfulness, as though the 
cruel and unnecessary sacrifice of his life, which he felt in honor 
bound to make in 1804, ^^st long shadows of presentiment be- 
fore it. 


214 


A LOYAL LLTTLE RED-COAT. 


When the ceremony was over, and Hazel had been the first to 
press the lovingest sort of a kiss on Josephine’s lips, all the rest 
gathered around to congratulate the young couple, trying for the 
moment to forget the sorrowful parting so soon to follow. Then 
when they had eaten, or pretended to eat, some of the good things 
Aunt Frances had prepared in honor of the occasion, it was time to 
go down to the barge that was waiting at Fort George to carry the 
“ Blue Bird’s’’ passengers. Josephine’s good-byes were all said at the 
house. She could not bear to have any strangers near when she 
took that long farewell of her father and mother, and Hazel and 
Bonny Kate, and then, going up to the room that Aunt Frances had 
fitted up for her, and burying her face in the pillows of the sofa, it 
seemed to her as though her heart would break. Sad enough for a 
bride, you think — so different from all the joyous cheer that ought 
to belong to a wedding; and yet many happy days were in store for 
Josephine, many happy years in the old homestead, never so home- 
like and attractive as since Aunt Frances had regained possession of 
it. There was quite a little company of them walking down to the 
barge, so much of a company, indeed, that some boys, who noticed 
them, wondered “ what was up,” and having nothing better to do, 
followed in their train. Captain Boniface, of course, was driveq 
down, and so was Mrs. Boniface and Kate; but Hazel preferred to 
walk, and with a “ teary” little Marberry on either arm made her 
way along with the rest. There was but one bright spot on the 
otherwise dark horizon of those little Marberrys, and that was that 
Hazel’s pony, Gladys, had taken up her abode in the Rector’s stable, 
and was to be theirs from that day forth ; and they took a sort of 
gloomy comfort in determining that as soon as they had said good- 
ie to Hazel herself they would go straight home and into Gladys’s 
stall, and ease their heavy little hearts by doing what they could for 
the welfare of Hazel’s pony. There was no doubt about it, the 
Marberrys were the most devoted of friends; but there was one thing 
that puzzled Hazel : Starlight was not as downcast as the occasion 
seemed to demand. On the contrary, he seemed more cheerful than 
for many days, and the nearer came the hour for the departure, why 
the more light-hearted. It was most inexplicable. Could it be, 
she thought, that she had been mistaken in him all these years, and 
that, after all, he was a boy with no more feeling than “ other boys ''1 



“ Another minute and you’ll be left 


M 



2i6 


A LOYAL LLTTLE LEE-COAT. 


It seems that Aunt Frances had finally given her consent to 
Starlight’s scheme to make the round trip on the “ Blue Bird,” and 
see the Bonifaces safely landed on British soil, not, however, you 
may be sure, until she had talked the plan well over with Captain 
Lewis ; but it had all been kept a carefully guarded secret from 
Hazel, and even Flutters did not know of it. At Fort George final 
leave was taken of Milly and Tilly, Aunt Frances and the Van 
Vleets; but we will not say very much about that. There are quite 
too many good-byes in the world for most of us as it is, and yet, 
where were the happy meetings were it not for these same good-byes ? 

Harry Avery and Starlight went over in the barge to the vessel, 
and as Starlight earlier in the day had stealthily stowed away his 
baggage, consisting in greater part of an old violin, there was noth- 
ing to betray that he had any thought other than to return in the 
barge with Harry when the time came. 

It was not an easy thing to get Captain Boniface aboard of the 
“ Blue Bird,” but finally it was safely accomplished to the great relief 
of everybody, including even Bonny Kate, who had been very much 
afraid the men would let him fall. 

But no one watched the proceeding with greater evident anxiety 
than Flutters, for Flutters had given himself over mind and body to 
the Captain, anticipating his every wish, and trying to be both hands 
and feet to him ; and Hazel had been sufficiently gracious to resume 
without demurring the brushing of her own clothes and sundry 
other little duties which had of late been performed for her by Flutters. 

As for Flutters, now that his father was dead, it mattered not to 
him where home might be, if it were only with the Bonifaces; but 
he thought he should like some day, when they could spare him 
from the Rectory over there in Cheshire, to run down to Burnham, 
and without letting them know who he was, perhaps have a chat 
with those little white children of his father’s, that were babies 
when he left England, if he should happen to find them playing in 
the garden of the house where he used to live. 

It was a beautiful early-summer day, that 15th of June, and 
the bay lay sparkling dike silver in the sunshine. The “ Blue Bird” 
was booked to sail at ffiree o’clock, and at the exact moment the 
sailors began pulling hand over hand with their “ Yo, heave O,” and 
the “ Blue Bird’s” anchor was weighed. 


THE ^^BLUE BIRD^' WEIGHS ANCHOR. 


217 


Harry Avery had kissed Mrs. Boniface good-bye, and once again 
promised, with a tremble in his voice, “to take the best care of 
Josephine,” and now he was climbing down the ship’s side, and the 
rowers of the barge, bending to their oars, were simply waiting to 
“ give way,” till he should have stepped aboard. 

Starlight, with hands in his trousers’ pockets, stood on the “ Blue 
Bird’s” deck, apparently unconcerned. Flutters, wondering what the 
fellow could be thinking of, with an excited gesture gave him a 
shove in the direction of the barge, while Hazel, with a strong ac- 
cent on every word, cried, “Another minute. Job Starlight, and 
you’ll be left.” 

“ It can’t be helped. Hazel ; I’m left now,” Starlight answered, 
and indeed truthfully, for the barge was already yards away ; then, 
seeing how real was Hazel’s anxiety over what she deemed a most 
distressing accident, he hastened to announce, his face wreathed in 
smiles, “ But it’s all right. Hazel; I am going to see you safe to Eng- 
land, and Aunt Frances is in the secret.” Hazel, as weak as a kitten 
with delight and astonishment, leaned against the ship’s rail, and 
could not find voice to speak for two whole minutes ; while Captain 
Lewis looked on, rubbing his palms complacently together, and 
thinking what a grand thing it was to have had a hand in a surprise 
like that 1 








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